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A suspect is charged in one of Toronto’s Jewish shootings — but the bigger picture remains murky
(JTA) — TORONTO — After a man riddled a Jewish-owned restaurant with bullets in uptown Toronto, police accomplished something earlier this month that they hadn’t done following previous attacks on Jewish sites: identify and charge a suspect.
The 35-year-old suspect, Mohamed Mahdi, was arrested just a few days after the April 3 attack and charged with on multiple gun-related offenses.
His arrest provided the first, and to this point only, public pieces of information that could chip away at the mystery that has roiled Toronto’s Jewish community: Who is shooting at these synagogues and Jewish businesses? And how do they keep getting away with it?
In early March, three synagogues were targeted with gunfire in the span of a week, one with the rabbi still inside following a Purim event. A different location of the Jewish-owned Old Avenue Restaurant was hit as well, about a month before the latest shooting.
Similar attacks took place in 2024, when a girls elementary school was hit with gunfire three times throughout the year.
The nature of these attacks have been nearly identical: A man approaches the building late at night with a mask or hood covering his face and fires bullets at the door or a window before driving or running off.
The recent string of shootings came as a number of Jewish institutions have been attacked around the world, with security groups urging heightened vigilance. It renewed the fears sparked by those 2024 shootings, and — until Mahdi’s arrest — frustrations over a lack of repercussions for the shooters.
“I know that a lot of people in Toronto, a lot of members of our Jewish community, are saying that the police are not doing enough,” said Guidy Mamann, the president of the Toronto Zionist Council who organized weekly pro-Israel hostage rallies.
Mamann said he does not himself agree, and thinks the police are doing what they can — but others have put the pressure on.
“Dispense with the thoughts and prayers and get to work,” Rabbi Daniel Korobkin, whose congregation, Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto, was shot in March, told Global News at the time.
According to Jevon Greenblatt, CEO of Toronto’s Jewish Security Network, the attacks themselves have been planned in a way that minimizes the risk of getting caught.
“These types of attacks are unfortunately designed to be quick and low-risk for the person carrying them out, late at night, minimal time on site, and often no interaction with anyone,” Greenblatt said in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “That often means fewer witnesses and less immediate evidence.”
Police credited the arrest to an increased deployment of officers — “both overt and covert” — to Jewish neighborhoods, which was especially pronounced during Passover, when the latest shooting took place.
“Specifically in the case, covert assets saw the suspect fleeing and gathered critical information that led to his arrest,” police chief Myron Demkiw said in a press conference.
Mamann said it was “great” that police were able to thwart the attack. But he also pointed out that Old Avenue Restaurant had already been targeted once, perhaps making it a prime location for police to monitor.
“They said they were able to find the suspect through covert measures, that’s great,” Mamann said. “Can you deploy those covert measures everywhere? Would they be effective? Would they be 24 hours? Or were those covert measures deployed because they had information that something might happen?”
A pair of incidents this past weekend added to Toronto Jews’ rising security concerns. One man assaulted a father on his way to Shabbat service at the Sephardic Kehilah Centre, after attempting to force his way inside; the following day, a rock was thrown through the window of a Judaica shop on the heavily Jewish Bathurst Street corridor. Both occurred in broad daylight, and neither suspect has been identified.
As for Old Avenue Restaurant, police said they are investigating why it was targeted twice. Its owner, Esther Bakinka, is a prominent pro-Israel advocate who organized hostage rallies alongside Mamann. Bakinka declined to comment; Mamann said she is “very strong” but that “that has got to leave you pretty shaken up.”
Even after Mahdi’s arrest, a number of question marks remain for Toronto’s Jewish community.
Chief among them is whether there is a direct link between the shootings that have taken place across the city. Greenblatt said the arrest was an “important development” and could potentially help answer that question while also dissuading copycat attackers.
“We’re hopeful this may help establish whether there are any links to the other incidents, and more broadly, that a visible arrest and charge acts as a deterrent,” Greenblatt said.
Unlike the 2024 shootings at Bais Chaya, the Jewish girls’ elementary school, the recent string of synagogue and Jewish restaurant attacks have come as Israel is at war with Iran. Iran has a long track record of sowing violence against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad. In the last couple of weeks, a string of arson attacks have targeted Jewish sites in the UK, with many being claimed by a new, Iran-linked group that says it is behind similar attacks across Europe. Jewish security groups have urged heightened caution since the war broke out, with one watchdog calling it “the most elevated and complex threat environment” in recent history.
Greenblatt said there is no evidence that there has been direct coordination between the incidents, but that a broader form of influence could be at play. He said that there is an “increased emphasis, similar to what we’ve seen from groups like ISIS and Hamas, on encouraging so-called ‘lone actor’ activity.”
“The rhetoric and messaging are often designed to inspire individuals to take action on their own, rather than operate under direct instruction,” Greenblatt said. “So, while there may not be evidence of direct coordination between incidents, they can still be linked by a shared influence or narrative environment that encourages this kind of behavior.”
Police upped their presence in Toronto after the outbreak of the Iran war, and announced a new Counter-Terrorism Security Unit following the three synagogue attacks. In the announcement, Demkiw highlighted “global conflicts, extremist ideologies, online radicalization, hostile foreign actors and heightened polarization” as “realities that impact both our work and the sense of safety in our communities.”
Demkiw also announced Task Force Guardian, an initiative that deploys officers armed with patrol rifles at key locations like houses of worship to deter potential attackers. A week later, Old Avenue Restaurant was hit with more than a dozen bullets.
The whole thing has left Jewish Torontonians feeling uneasy.
Even as police stand outside more houses of worship, carry bigger guns and gather more intelligence, Mamann said he worries that the community is vulnerable to a sudden attack like the shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney in December that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah event.
And in his conversations with other Toronto Jews, Mamann said they’ve theorized about who’s been behind the shootings.
“We’re thinking like this: The folks that we deal with at Bathurst and Sheppard, some people consider them annoying or intimidating,” he said, referring to the pro-Palestinian protesters who would show up across the street from his group’s hostage rallies. “But it doesn’t appear that we’re dealing with that crowd.” The suspect, Mahdi, may have a criminal record. In 2019, a 29-year-old man named Mohamed Mahdi was arrested for attempted murder and unauthorized possession of a firearm, in connection with a shooting. Police did not confirm whether it was the same Mohamed Mahdi, but the ages line up, and both were identified as being from the suburb of Brampton.
Meanwhile, Mahdi’s arrest has put to rest some of the theories that these attacks have been false flags coordinated in order to drum up sympathy for the Jewish community.
Mamann said he believes the shooters are professionals with potential ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are willing to risk going to jail on firearm charges. Police in the UK said earlier this week that recent arson attacks may have been carried out in exchange for payments from Iran, based on emerging evidence.
“I think we’re dealing with a whole different cohort of people, and it could be state-sponsored, I don’t know,” Mamann said. “And that’s why it creates a lot of concern: We don’t know how to deal with this.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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Mamdani touts ‘Babies not Bombs’ messaging after flexing political muscle in the New York primaries
(New York Jewish Week) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani celebrated the victories of the progressive candidates he endorsed in New York’s Democratic primaries describing their success as a “shift in the balance of power.”
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the morning after the primaries, Mamdani touted the triumphs as a shift in the balance of power between “working people” and “special interests.”
Mamdani-endorsed candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez won Democratic nominations for Congress. During the press conference, the mayor repeatedly highlighted their calls to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel and redirect federal funding to domestic priorities.
Following Mamdani’s election night sweep in New York, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that “America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!”
The victories offered an early demonstration of Mamdani’s political influence beyond City Hall, as several Democratic Socialist candidates he backed, including Chevalier, defeated established Democratic incumbents in their districts.
“The working person is struggling in our city to afford basic needs,” Mamdani said, adding that Avila Chevalier’s oft-repeated slogan of investing in “Babies not Bombs,” is “the kind of conscience, the kind of clarity, the kind of conviction that has been missing in our politics for far too long.”
Mamdani responded to the president’s post on Wednesday, telling a reporter who asked whether his goal is to make America a “socialist” country that his “goal is to make America a place that every American can afford.”
When asked about federal policies that could be affected by Mamdani’s endorsed candidates, the mayor cited Valdez’s support for “foreign policy that understands human rights for all” and Lander’s commitment to co-sponsoring the Block the Bombs Act, which prohibits the sale of certain U.S.-made offensive weapons to Israel.
Mamdani also dismissed a question about whether he was concerned about how the victories would play out in November as Democrats try to win back the House.
“Every time the fight for working people takes a step forward, you will hear Republicans say that this is actually going to jeopardize the existence of that very fight,” he said.
When asked whether the election of Chevalier, who has faced scrutiny for past social media posts attacking Democrats and her appearance at an Oct. 8, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally in Times Square, could “complicate campaigns for Democrats as a whole,” Mamdani replied “No.”
“[Chevalier] often speaks about a politics of life. She speaks about ‘Babies not bombs,’” Mamdani continued. “What could be a better example of what the people of the district want to see versus what the people of the district have been forced to experience, which is tens of billions of dollars being spent at a national level to bomb children overseas, while children in our own districts are struggling.”
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Jewish anti-Zionist David Orkin defeats incumbent in NY Assembly primary
(New York Jewish Week) — David Orkin, a Jewish anti-Zionist attorney and democratic socialist, defeated incumbent New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Orkin won State Assembly District 38, which includes parts of Queens.
Orkin, an immigrant workers’ rights attorney and union organizer, received 58.8% of the vote, while Rajkumar, who has represented the district since 2021 and is the first South Asian woman ever elected to office in the state, received 40.9%. The district covers a swath of Queens, including parts of Ridgewood, Glendale, Ozone Park, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.
“Pro-Palestine candidates are sweeping in NYC tonight,” Jewish Voice for Peace Action wrote in a post on Instagram celebrating Orkin’s win Tuesday. “Palestine was on the ballot — and won. David will be a champion for Palestinian freedom in Albany.”
The post from JVP Action echoed a message Orkin had highlighted throughout his campaign.
“It’s so incredibly meaningful to me to be running this race as an anti-Zionist Jew, to be one of the few anti-Zionist Jewish voices that is in an elected seat in the state government,” Orkin said in an Instagram reel posted by Jewish Voice for Peace Action earlier this month.
He added that, if elected, he would be able to go in front of the state legislature and assert that “criticizing Israel for genocide, demanding an end to the occupation, demanding an end to funding war abroad is not antisemitic.”
Orkin’s victory came amid a strong night for democratic socialist candidates across New York City, including left-wing congressional candidates Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, who also defeated establishment-backed opponents in their primaries.
While Orkin was not endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose winning endorsements of Lander, Chevalier and Valdez signaled a pro-Palestinian lurch for the party in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel. Nonetheless, his victory elevated a self-described anti-Zionist to the ranks of New York’s elected officials at a time when debates over Israel have become increasingly prominent within Democratic politics.
While Israel-related issues were not listed on Orkin’s platform, which centered on affordability and immigration, he repeatedly expressed his support for a “free Palestine” and attacked Rajkumar’s record of support for the Jewish state during his campaign.
“In the past several years my opponent AM Rajkumar has walked in the Israel day parade but has said NOTHING against the war in Gaza, occupation of Palestine, or Islamophobic attacks faced by the people of New York,” Orkin wrote in a May post on X.
Rajkumar, who was a close political ally of former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in her campaign platform vowed to combat antisemitism.
After establishing a Jewish Voice for Peace chapter in Tucson, Arizona, in 2014, Orkin remained involved in pro-Palestinian activism as a member of the anti-Zionist activist group.
“I’ve been involved in the Jewish Palestine Solidarity Movement for 12, 13 years,” Orkin told Democratic Left last month. “I’ve dedicated part [of my] life to making sure that Jewish people are creating religious spaces outside of Zionism, and to making more space for Palestinian organizing to have an impact.”
On the campaign trail, Orkin received a host of endorsements from prominent progressive groups and lawmakers, including Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, JVP Action and NYC Democratic Socialists for America.
Rajkumar was endorsed by ActJew, the new nonprofit focused on combatting antisemitism, as well as the Queens Jewish Alliance and Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Kalman Yeger and Chuck Lavine.
Orkin received over $290,000 in campaign contributions for the election cycle, including over $156,000 from the office of the state comptroller, while Rajkumar received over $270,000, including $9,000 from health care executive Daniel Lowy.
“I have dedicated my life fighting for immigrants and workers, I am proud to have earned their support in this election, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life winning the beautiful and joyous lives we deserve,” Orkin said in a statement, according to QNS.
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Half of Americans think the U.S. is ‘too supportive’ of Israel
(JTA) — A new survey found that 48% of American voters think the United States is “too supportive” of Israel, the highest since the pollster started asking the question in 2017.
The survey published Wednesday by Quinnipiac University also found that 60% of respondents reported that military intervention in Iran was “not worth it” as opposed to 34% of voters who said it was “worth it.”
The number of respondents who think the U.S. support of Israel is about right is 38%, while just 7% think the U.S. is not supportive enough of Israel, the poll found.
Broken down by party, 66% of Democrats think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, while 9% think it is not supportive enough and 18% think U.S. support for Israel is about right.
Among Republicans, 20% think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, 69% think American support for Israel is “about right,” and 6% think the U.S. is not supportive enough.
Among independent voters, 55% think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, 34% think U.S. support for Israel is about right, and 7% think the U.S. is not supportive enough.
The poll data were released one day after three Democrats critical of Israel swept their House primary races in New York City, and in races around the country even some reliably pro-Israel Democratic candidates distanced themselves from the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.
A survey last year by Gallup found dwindling support for Israel among Democrats, as well as waning support among Republicans.
Still the party divide was also in sharp evidence in the latest poll. In responses to the question about whether the Iran war was “worth it”, Democrats disfavored military action in Iran at 93% and independents at 66%, while 75% of Republicans surveyed thought it was “worth it.”
Given a list of 10 issues and asked which, if any, they considered priorities in their decision-making process in the election for the U.S. House of Representatives, 41% of voters cited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, above AI data centers (38%) and Donald Trump (38%). The high cost of living (70%) and health care (59%) topped the list.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted from June 18 to 22, and includes responses from 1,165 self-identified registered voters.
The margin of error is 3.4 percentage points.
Among those surveyed, 48% said they had an unfavorable view of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Twenty percent said they had a favorable opinion, and 30% “haven’t heard enough” about him.
“Netanyahu gets poor marks from American voters as their appetite for supporting Israel wanes, with the share of voters who think the U.S. is too supportive of Israel hitting a new high,” Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy wrote in the report.
Voters were also asked about their views on the June 17 memorandum of understanding with Iran, which begins a 60-day negotiation period that does not outline an end to Iran’s nuclear program.
“After months of diplomatic fits and starts, global economic repercussions and a broad loss of life in the region, a majority of voters make their feelings clear: the Iran war was a bad idea,” Malloy wrote.
Voters who are either not confident or “not so confident” that the deal will succeed numbered 59%, and 61% think it is either likely or very likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.
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