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From ‘how to’ to ‘why bother?’: Michael Strassfeld writes a new guide to being Jewish
(JTA) — “What the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember.” That’s known as Hansen’s Law, named for the historian Marcus Lee Hansen, who observed that while the children of immigrants tend to run away from their ethnicity in order to join the mainstream, the third generation often wants to learn the “old ways” of their grandparents.
In 1973, “The Jewish Catalog” turned Hansen’s Law into a “do-it-yourself kit” for young Jews who wanted to practice the traditions of their grandparents but weren’t exactly sure how. Imagine “The Joy of Cooking,” but instead of recipes the guide to Jewish living had friendly instructions for hosting Shabbat, building a sukkah and taking part in Jewish rituals from birth to death. Co-edited by Michael Strassfeld, Sharon Strassfeld and the late Richard Siegel, it went on to sell 300,000 copies and remains in print today.
Fifty years later, Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has written a new book that he calls a “bookend” to “The Jewish Catalog.” If the first book is a Jewish “how to,” the latest asks, he says, “why bother?” “Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century” asserts that an open society and egalitarian ethics leave most Jews skeptical of the rituals and beliefs of Jewish tradition. In the face of this resistance, he argues that the purpose of Judaism is not obedience to Torah and its rituals for their own sake or mere “continuity,” but to “encourage and remind us to strive to live a life of compassion, loving relationships, and devotion to our ideals.”
Strassfeld, 73, grew up in an Orthodox home in Boston and got his master’s degree in Jewish studies at Brandeis University. Coming to doubt the “faith claims” of Orthodoxy, he became a regular at nearby Havurat Shalom, an “intentional community” that pioneered the havurah movement’s liberal, hands-on approach to traditional practice. He earned rabbinical ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College when he was 41 and went on to serve as the rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed on the Upper West Side and later the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, the Manhattan flagship of Reconstructionist Judaism.
“To be disrupted is to experience a break with the past and simultaneously reconnect in a new way to that past,” writes Strassfeld, who retired from the pulpit in 2015. This week, we spoke about why people might find Jewish ritual empty, how he thinks Jewish practices can enrich their lives and how Passover — which begins Wednesday night — could be the key to unlocking the central idea of Judaism.
Our conversation was edited for length and clarity.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency: I wanted to start with the 50th anniversary of the “Jewish Catalog.” What connects the new book with the work you did back then on the “Catalog,” which was a do-it-yourself guide for Jews who were trying to reclaim the stuff they either did or didn’t learn in Hebrew school?
Michael Strassfeld: I see them as bookends. Basically, I keep on writing the same book over and over again. [Laughs] Except no, I’m different and the world is different. I’m always trying to make Judaism accessible to people. In the “Catalog” I was providing the resources on how to live a Jewish life when the resources weren’t easily accessible.
The new book is less about “how to” than “why bother?” That’s the challenge. I think a lot of people take pride in being Jewish, but it’s a small part of their identity because it doesn’t feel relevant. I want to say to people like that that Judaism is about living a life with meaning and purpose. It’s not about doing what I call the “Jewishly Jewish” things, like keeping kosher and going to synagogue. Judaism is wisdom and practices to live life with meaning and purpose. The purpose of Judaism isn’t to be a good Jew, despite all the surveys that give you 10 points for, you know, lighting Shabbat candles. It’s about being a good person.
So that brings up your relationship to the commandments and mitzvot, the traditional acts and behaviors that an Orthodox Jew or a committed Conservative Jew feels commanded to do, from prayer to keeping kosher to observing the Sabbath and the holidays. They might argue that doing these things is what makes you Jewish, but you’re arguing something different. If someone doesn’t feel bound by these obligations, why do them at all?
I don’t have the faith or beliefs that underlie such an attitude [of obligation]. Halacha, or Jewish law, is not in reality law. It’s really unlike American law where you know that if you’re violating it, you could be prosecuted. What I’m trying to do in the book is reframe rituals as an awareness practice, that is, bringing awareness to various aspects of our lives. So it could be paying attention to food, or cultivating attitudes of gratitude, or generosity, or satisfaction. My broad understanding of the festival cycle, for example, is that you can focus on those attitudes all year long, but the festivals provide a period of time once in the year to really focus on, in the case of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for example, saying sorry and repairing relationships.
In “Judaism Disrupted: A Spiritual Manifesto for the 21st Century,” Michael Strassfeld argues that the challenge of each generation’s Jews is to create the Judaism that is needed in their time. (Ben Yehuda Press)
Passover is coming. Probably no holiday asks its practitioners to do so much stuff in preparation, from cleaning the house of every trace of unleavened food to hosting, in many homes, two different catered seminars on Jewish history. Describe how Passover cultivates awareness, especially of the idea of freedom, which plays an important part thematically in your boo
The Sefat Emet [a 19th-century Hasidic master] says Torah is all about one thing: freedom. But there’s a variety of obstacles in the way. There are temptations. There’s the inner issues that you struggle with, and the bad things that are out of your control. The Sefat Emet says the 613 commandments are 613 etzot, or advice, that teach us how to live a life of freedom. The focus of Passover is trying to free yourself from the chains of the things that hold you back from being the person that you could be, not getting caught up in materiality or envy, free from unnecessary anxieties — all these things that distract us or keep us from being who we could be.
The Passover seder is one of the great rituals of Judaism. We’re trying to do a very ambitious thing by saying, not, like, “let’s remember when our ancestors were freed from Egypt,” but rather that we were slaves in Egypt and we went free. And at the seder we actually ingest that. We experience the bitterness by eating maror, the bitter herb. We experience the freedom by drinking wine. We don’t want it just to be an intellectual exercise.
Unfortunately the seder has become rote. But Passover is about this huge theme of freedom that is central to Judaism.
I think some people bristle against ritual because they find it empty. But you’re saying there’s another way to approach rituals which is to think of them as tools or instruments that can help you focus on core principles — you actually list 11 — which include finding holiness everywhere, caring for the planet and engaging in social justice, to name a few. But that invites the criticism, which I think was also leveled at the “Catalog,” that Judaism shouldn’t be instrumental, because if you treat it as a means to an end that’s self-serving and individualistic.
Certainly rituals are tools, but tools in the best sense of the word. They help us pay attention to things in our lives and things in the world that need repair. And people use them not to get ahead in the world, but because they want to be a somewhat better person. I talk a lot these days about having a brief morning practice, and in the book I write about the mezuzah. For most Jews it’s become wallpaper, but what if you take the moment that you leave in the morning, and there’s a transition from home to the outside and to work perhaps, and take a moment at the doorpost to spiritually frame your day? What are the major principles that you want to keep in your mind when you know you’re gonna be stuck in traffic or a difficult meeting?
And a lot of traditional rituals are instrumental. Saying a blessing before you eat is a gratitude practice.
But why do I need a particular Jewish ritual or practice to help me feel gratitude or order my day? Aren’t there other traditions I can use to accomplish the same things?
Anybody who is a pluralist, which I am, knows that the Jewish way is not the only way. If I grew up in India or Indonesia and my parents were locals I probably wouldn’t be a rabbi and writing these books.
But a partial answer to your question is that Judaism is one of the oldest wisdom traditions in the world, and that there has been a 3,000-year conversation by the Jewish people about what it means to live in this tradition and to live in the world. And so I think there’s a lot of wisdom there.
So much in Jewish tradition says boundaries are good, and that it’s important to draw distinctions between what’s Jewish behavior and what’s not Jewish behavior, between the holy and the mundane, and that making those distinctions is a value in itself. But you argue strongly in an early chapter that that kind of binary thinking is not Judaism as you see it.
Underlying the book is the notion that Rabbinic Judaism carried the Jewish people for 2,000 years or so. But we’re living in a very different context, and the binaries, the dualities — too often they lead to hierarchy, so that, for example, men matter more than women in Jewish life. And we’ve tried to change that. We are living in an open society where we want to be more inclusive, not less inclusive. We don’t want to live in ghettos. Now, the ultra-Orthodox say, “No, we realize the danger of trying to live like that. We don’t think there’s anything of value in that modern world. And it’s all to be rejected.” And it would be foolish not to admit that in this very open world the Jews, as a minority, could kind of disappear. But I think that Judaism has so much value and wisdom and practices to offer to people that Judaism will continue to be part of the fabric of this world — the way, for example, we have given Shabbat as a concept to the world.
You know, in the first 11 chapters of the Torah, there are no Jews. So clearly, Jews and Judaism are not essential for the world to exist. And that’s a good, humbling message.
OK, but one could argue that while Jews aren’t necessary for the world to exist, Judaism is necessary for Jews to exist. And you write in your book, “If the Jewish people is to be a people, we need to have a commonly held tradition.” I think the pushback to the kind of openness and permeability you describe is that Jews can be so open and so permeable that they just fall through the holes.
It certainly is a possibility. And it’s also a possibility that the only Jews who will be around will be ultra-Orthodox Jews.
But if Judaism can only survive by being separatist, then I question whether it’s really worthwhile. That becomes a distorted vision of Judaism, and withdrawing is not what it’s meant to be. I think we’re meant to be in the world.
Your book is called “Judaism Disrupted.” What is disruptive about the Judaism that you’re proposing?
I meant it in two ways. First, Judaism is being disrupted by this very different world we’re living in. The contents of the ocean we swim in is very different than in the Middle Ages. But I’m also using it to say that Judaism is meant to disrupt our lives in a positive way, which is to say, “Wake up, pay attention.” You are here to live a life of meaning and purpose, and to continue as co-creators with God of the universe. You’re here to make the world better, to be kind and compassionate to people, to work on yourself. In my mind it is a shofar, “Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep!” “Judaism Disrupted” says you have to pay attention to issues like food, and justice, and teshuva [repentance].
You were ordained as a Reconstructionist rabbi. Do you think your book falls neatly into any of our current denominational categories?
[Reconstructionist founder] Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s notion of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization is the one that I feel closest to. But I feel that the denominational structure isn’t particularly useful anymore. There’s basically two categories, Orthodox and the various kinds of liberal Judaism, within a spectrum. The modern world is so fundamentally different in its relationship to Jews and Judaism that what we’re seeing is a variety of attempts to figure out how to respond. And that will then become the Judaism for the next millennium. It’s time for a lot of experimentation. I think that’s required and out of that will come a new “Minhag America,” to use Isaac Mayer Wise’s phrase for the emerging custom of American Jews [Wise was a Reform rabbi in the late 19th century]. And we don’t need to have everybody doing it one way. As long as people feel committed to Judaism, the Jewish tradition, even if they’re doing it very differently than the Jews of the past, they will be writing themselves into the conversation.
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Taiwan Donates Humanitarian Aid to Israel, Sends ‘Message of Hope and Solidarity’ Amid Iran Strikes
A Taiwan flag can be seen on an overpass ahead of National Day celebrations in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ann Wang
Taiwan has donated NT$5.14 million (more than $160,000) for emergency operations and life-saving equipment to Israel amid Iranian ballistic missiles strikes on the Jewish state, expressing “solidarity” with a fellow democracy under constant threat as China continues to support Iran.
Taiwan’s representative to Israel, Abby Lee, said on Tuesday that the donation reflected continued cooperation and mutual concern for civilian safety amid shared security challenges, Taiwan News reported.
“Our contribution is more than financial assistance. It is a message of hope and solidarity to those affected by the war,” Lee said on Tuesday at a conference for ZAKA, Israel’s volunteer civilian emergency service and rescue organization. “Taiwan and Israel may be geographically distant, but we are neighbors in our values, small democracies under constant external threat that continue to thrive and stand by one another.”
The announcement came after the US and Israel last weekend launched a military campaign against Iran, targeting the Iranian military and security apparatus. Tehran has responded with drone and ballistic missile strikes at Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, aimed specifically at civilian sites.
One Iranian missile strike hit the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh on Sunday, killing nine people and wounding dozens, in what authorities described as a direct impact on a public bomb shelter.
Lee said that ZAKA volunteers used portable lighting towers purchased with Taiwan’s donation and that the equipment enabled emergency work under complex conditions and at night.
“We are particularly proud to contribute to initiatives led by ZAKA and are pleased to see our contribution transformed into equipment of real value on the ground,” she said.
Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, “Taiwan was among the first to strongly condemn the terrorist attacks and provided humanitarian aid and financial assistance to support kibbutzim, communities, and local authorities that were affected by the attacks and the threats that followed them,” Lee added.
The donation came less than three months after China condemned a senior Taiwanese official’s reported secret trip to Israel. The Reuters news agency reported in December that Taiwan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu made a previously unpublicized visit to Israel.
China considers Taiwan, a nearby island run by a democratic government, as a renegade Chinese province that must be reunited with the mainland — by force, if necessary. Due to pressure from Beijing, few countries have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Israel only recognizes Beijing but not Taipei, which has been increasingly looking to Israel for defense cooperation.
In October, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said that Israel is a model for Taiwan to learn from in strengthening its defenses, citing the Biblical story of David versus Goliath on the need to stand up to authoritarianism.
“The Taiwanese people often look to the example of the Jewish people when facing challenges to our international standing and threats to our sovereignty from China. The people of Taiwan have never become discouraged,” he said. “Israel’s determination and capacity to defend its territory provides a valuable model for Taiwan. I have always believed that Taiwan needs to channel the spirit of David against Goliath in standing up to authoritarian coercion.”
He made the remarks during a dinner of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Taiwan.
Lai in October also announced a new multi-layered air defense system called “T-Dome” to defend itself against a possible future attack by China. It is partly modeled on Israel’s air defense system.
Lai told the AIPAC dinner that T-Dome had been inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, as well as US President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense shield plan.
“I believe that trilateral Taiwan-US-Israel cooperation can help achieve regional peace, stability, and prosperity,” he said.
Meanwhile, China, a key diplomatic and economic backer of Iran, has moved to deepen ties with the Islamist regime in recent years, signing a 25-year cooperation agreement, holding joint naval drills, and continuing to purchase Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, with nearly 90 percent of Iran’s crude and condensate exports going to Beijing.
With regional tensions rising and great-power competition shaping the Middle East, diplomatic and security relations between Beijing and Jerusalem have become increasingly strained.
Last year, China slammed the Jewish state for joining a United Nations declaration condemning Beijing’s human rights record.
Israel had endorsed a US-backed declaration, signed by 15 other countries — including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan — that expressed “deep and ongoing concerns” over human rights violations in China.
In a rare move, Jerusalem broke with its traditionally cautious approach to China — aimed at preserving diplomatic and economic ties — by signing on to the statement. The signatory countries denounced China’s repression of ethnic and religious minority groups, citing arbitrary detentions, forced labor, mass surveillance, and restrictions on cultural and religious expression.
These diplomatic moves came amid an already tense relationship with China, strained since the start of the war in Gaza. In September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Beijing, along with Qatar, of funding a “media blockade” against the Jewish state.
According to a report released by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), an Israeli think tank, China has increasingly used state media and covert campaigns to spread anti-Israel and antisemitic narratives in the United States.
The report examined how China’s state media portrays Israel and the United States as solely responsible for the war in Gaza, depicting them as destabilizing actors while spreading anti-Israel and antisemitic messages.
“It is evident that China and its proxies play a significant role in the current wave of antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States,” Ofir Dayan, a research associate in the Israel-China Policy Center at INSS, wrote in the report.
Last month, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published a new report showing how China has embraced overt antisemitic messaging in its domestic propaganda in recent years. The study tied the move to both geopolitical rivalry with the United States and efforts to curry favor with Arab and Muslim countries hostile to Israel.
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Israeli Government Report Reveals a ‘Significant Penetration of Muslim Brotherhood Ideology’ Across Europe
General view of the hemicycle during the debate on the European resolution proposal of the DR group aiming to include the Muslim Brotherhood movement on the European list of terrorist organizations at the National Assembly in Paris France on Jan. 22, 2026. Photo: Sami Karaali / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has published a new report detailing dozens of activists and organizations affiliated with the European wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which researchers characterized as acting “autonomous” from its Middle East allies rather than under their direction.
“The Muslim Brotherhood operates in Europe through deceptive methods that project an outward appearance of moderation and pragmatism,” said Avi Cohen-Scali, director general of the ministry. “This front is used to advance dangerous ideological goals. Despite its external ‘moderation,’ the movement consistently rejects liberal democratic principles and Western values, which conflict with its radical aspirations — including efforts to Islamize Europe.”
Amichai Chikli, minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, warned that “those who close their eyes today will pay tomorrow — with the security of their citizens and with Jewish lives.”
Founded in Egypt in 1928 by schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in response to the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate on March 3, 1924, the Muslim Brotherhood seeks to implement Islamic law across the entire planet by any means necessary. Operating as a secret society informed by 1930s fascist and communist revolutionary organizing methods, over the last 90 years the Brotherhood has embraced both violent terrorism and lawful political activity, the latter largely through the creation of front groups dubbed by German security as “legalist Islamists” (Legalisten).
The most influential Muslim Brotherhood-created terrorist group today is Hamas, perpetrator of the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, the deadliest massacre of Jews since the end of World War II.
The Israeli ministry names the primary threats posed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe as escalating incitement through aggressive organizing, radicalizing the Muslim community with extremist Koranic interpretations, supporting terrorist groups, platforming radical figures at events, and systemically delegitimizing Israel.
The report quotes a 2004 statement by Muhammad Akef, who served as the General Guide (Murshid) of the Brotherhood in Egypt from 2004 through 2010, explaining that the Brotherhood operates more by shared beliefs rather than a top-down command structure.
“We do not have an international organization; we have an organization through our perception of things (ideology). We are present in every country – wherever there are people who believe in the message of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Akef said. “In France, the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (MF/UOIF) does not belong to the Brotherhood organization. They operate according to their own laws and rules.”
Another figured cited to explain this strategy is Muhammad Habib, the former first deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
“There are entities that exist in many countries across the world. These entities share the same ideology, principles, and objectives, but they operate under different circumstances and contexts,” he said in 2008. “Therefore, it is logical that there be decentralization in action, such that each entity operates in accordance with its own circumstances and the challenges it faces, and within its own framework.”
The report lays out a spider’s web of interlocking organizations described in a ministry release as showing a “significant penetration of Muslim Brotherhood ideology into European countries” which, alongside financial connections to terrorists, “poses a direct threat to Jewish communities.”
On Feb. 26, 2026, the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism published a new report detailing the significant penetration of extremist ideology into terrorist organizations seeking to target Jewish communities across Europe. Map available here: https://embed.kumu.io/a3c1883e3bbd4ff775f3959eb3da5cf1#untitled-map
According to the ministry’s researchers, five organizations “form the core of the Muslim Brotherhood’s pan-European structure,” with each serving a different function and often sharing overlapping leadership.
The primary umbrella group is the Council of European Muslims (CEM), which was previously known as the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) until a 2020 rebrand led by Abdallah Ben Mansour, who had served as chairman of the group from 2014-2018 and again from 2022-2024. European intelligence officials quoted in the report stated that “in every European country, the organization that is a member of FIOE is the central body of the Muslim Brotherhood’s militia in that country.”
The second key Brotherhood body is the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), which is responsible for issuing Islamic legal rulings to guide Muslims residing in Europe for how to align Islamic law with their country’s civil law. The late Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi served as president of the council for more than 20 years. He was known for his support of Hamas and defense of suicide bombings, as well as for serving as the “spiritual leader” of the Brotherhood. France and the United Kingdom banned him from entry due to his advocacy of violent jihad.
The third pillar of the European Muslim Brotherhood is the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations (FEMYSO), which French intelligence said in 2025 served as the CEM’s youth branch and provided a “training structure for potential senior figures within the Muslim Brotherhood.” Qatar provided more than one million Euros of funding since 2016.
Mahmoud Aldiba is an ex-member of the Brotherhood in Sweden who helped found the local youth network. The report quotes an open letter he wrote upon leaving the movement in which he reveals the deceitful tactics used to deceive naive Westerners.
“The problem is the dual message, which is the most damaging. They conduct official dialogue with Christian and Jewish groups, yet internally spread fear of them. They speak about democracy, but in practice do the opposite,” Aldiba wrote. “In official forums they speak about democracy to achieve objectives, but within the organization there is a deep aversion to democracy, equality, and freedom of expression.”
An example of this tactic named in the report was the hosting by the League of Muslims of Belgium of Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood leader Tareq Al-Suwaidan, author of an antisemitic book titled The Jews.
The fourth central organization operates as the continent’s seminary, the European Institute of Human Sciences (IESH). Qaradawi previously led the organization until his death on Sept. 26, 2022. The school has since replaced him with Mohamed Karmous, also a Brotherhood figure. Qatar has supplied millions in funding.
The report emphasizes the role of Qatari funding in fueling the Brotherhood’s network.
“Qatar’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood has been shaped through strategic ambiguity in its foreign policy: Qatar has cultivated close ties with Islamist networks associated with the movement while denying publicly giving them direct support,” the report states. “Despite these denials, Qatar provides political refuge and a political base for senior Hamas figures, including members of its political bureau. Additionally, Qatar uses the state-funded media network Al Jazeera to disseminate the movement’s ideology worldwide.”
The last “pillar” of the Islamist establishment in Europe is arguably its most vital. The Europe Trust provides the financial backing for the other organizations, operating a network of real estate investments to fund the activities of the other four.
The report details charitable groups too, such as the Union of Good (a network led by Qaradawi), Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), and the Al Aqsa Foundation. Israel banned IRW in June 2014 after intelligence reports linked the group to funding Hamas. The United Arab Emirates followed suit in December 2014, labeling the “charity” a terrorist organization while citing its relationship to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas as justification.
Another group emphasized in the report is Interpal, a British organization which both the United States and the United Kingdom designated as a terrorist entity. Ibrahim Hewitt, a convert to Islam, leads the group as chairman of the board of trustees. He has engaged in Holocaust denial and promoted Islamic extremism. Meanwhile, the organization’s director-general is Issam Youssef Mustafa, who a US Treasury report documented working on Hamas’s executive committee and with Qaradawi.
In 2021, an Austrian government report found that “although the Brotherhood is not involved in terrorism, its activity is legal but not legitimate – its objectives contradict democratic norms.” Other European countries’ intelligence services have come to similar conclusions.
“The Muslim Brotherhood is not a civil society movement; it is a conduit for extremism and terror in the heart of Europe,” Chikli said. “Behind a façade of ‘moderation’ lies a network tied to Hamas and foreign funding that destabilizes democracies from within. Europe must wake up.”
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Antisemitic Attacks Across Canada Spark Alarm as Jewish Community Faces Surge of Violence, Harassment
People attend Canada’s Rally for the Jewish People at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, in December 2023. Photo: Shawn Goldberg via Reuters Connect
A wave of antisemitic incidents across Canada is raising alarm within the country’s Jewish community, as tensions linked to conflict in the Middle East continue to drive a surge in vandalism, harassment, and violence targeting Jews and Israelis.
In one of the latest antisemitic incidents, a kosher restaurant and a neighboring business in Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec, were vandalized on Wednesday, with antisemitic graffiti and swastikas spray-painted across their walls.
The incidents followed separate attacks in Toronto, a city in the province of Ontario, where shots were fired at a Jewish-owned restaurant and at a local synagogue.
A kosher restaurant in Montreal was spray painted with swastikas on its entrance in what is the most radical Islamist city in Canada. pic.twitter.com/pAgte47pyM
— Leviathan (@l3v1at4an) March 4, 2026
In another troubling antisemitic incident, a 15-year-old Jewish student in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, has been forced to continue his education online after his school failed to stop repeated antisemitic harassment and bullying.
In an interview with the National Post, the boy’s mother, Aviva Rubin-Schneider, described how her son had been harassed for years by classmates at Park West School.
He reportedly found swastika graffiti in the bathroom and was repeatedly subjected to antisemitic slurs such as “Jewseph” and “Jewboy,” while some students were also said to have performed Nazi salutes toward him in the school hallways.
The situation further escalated in 2024 when the boy was physically assaulted on school grounds, with fellow students punching and kicking him, throwing him to the ground, and hurling antisemitic slurs.
After the attack, Rubin-Schneider said her son “never really went back to school,” prompting the family to withdraw him entirely while citing Park West School’s inability to provide a safe learning environment.
Now, the boy continues his education virtually through the public school system and requires ongoing therapy.
“He literally doesn’t go to school anymore. He has absolutely no desire to be in school,” Rubin-Schneider told the National Post. “I’ve pulled him out completely. He’s got no desire to learn. He has no faith in any of the schools, the systems or anything of that sort.”
“The fact that my son does not go to school anymore just tells you he’s petrified,” she continued. “He doesn’t want to go to school. He doesn’t want to be around these kids. He knows he’s just going to be bullied again.”
When the incidents first began, the boy’s mother reached out to Halifax Regional Police’s hate-crime unit, leading an officer to meet with the school principal and later conduct student sessions on racism, intolerance, and hate crimes.
However, Aviva Rubin-Schneider said no further action followed, even after her son was physically assaulted on school grounds.
Like most countries across the Western world, Canada has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the wake of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Canadian Jews have been hit by a wave of antisemitic incidents, with at least 32 reported across five provinces in just the first week of January this year, according to data collected by the Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith.
“Antisemitism in Canada is now accelerating at an increasing rate, spreading across provinces, platforms, and public spaces. That is a warning signal, and it demands more than piecemeal reactions,” the group wrote in a letter urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to create a Royal Commission that would explore the problem and draft policy proposals for solving it.
According to the group’s latest audit released last year, antisemitic incidents in 2024 rose 7.4 percent from 2023, with 6,219 adding up to the highest total recorded since it began tracking such data in 1982.
Seventeen incidents occurred on average every day, while online antisemitism exploded a harrowing 161 percent since 2022. As standalone provinces, Quebec and Alberta saw the largest percentage increases, by 215 percent and 160 percent, respectively.
Now, concerns are growing about increasing targeted attacks on the local Jewish community, fears that Iran may activate sleeper cells abroad, and the risk of politically motivated violence linked to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Hours after the announced death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a boxing gym run by Iranian-Canadian dissident activist Salar Gholami in Richmond Hill, a suburb north of Toronto in Ontario, was struck by gunfire.