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How a repeatedly vandalized Toronto synagogue is navigating a new era of security
Michael Gilmore, who runs the synagogue that may hold the ignominious title of being Canada’s most vandalized, has become accustomed to 3 a.m. phone calls.
After hearing from the security company, he’s braced for coordinating a daytime visit from Toronto Police Services—a recurring experience in the aftermath of vandalism and other attacks targeting the building.
The executive director of Kehillat Shaarei Torah (KST), a 45-year-old modern Orthodox congregation with about 200 member families, which has been led by Rabbi Joe Kanofsky since 2009—located in the Bayview Village area of North York—has learned to respond nimbly to overnight attacks: the shul was vandalized, attacked, sustained property damage, at least eight times between April and December.
One person was arrested Jan. 13 in connection with a July 31 incident at the synagogue, when two sturdy lawn signs expressing the synagogue’s support for Israel were set on fire. It’s the first arrest in the series of incidents determined to be hate-motivated. Police have not released further details about the charges or the identity of the person arrested.
Gilmore said he’s pleased that at least one suspect has been found.
“I have always had full confidence in their ability to do it… it takes longer in reality than we’d like, but that’s just the system that we live in…. and hopefully the rest of our vandalism [incidents]… the person, the people that [did those] does get arrested as well.”
Since last April, the synagogue at the corner of Bayview Avenue and Fifeshire Road has had its windows and glass doors smashed by hammers and attacked with exploding mini-projectiles Gilmore says were designed to crack the glass on impact—along with several incidents of lawn signs for hostages set ablaze and defaced with spray-painted messages.
The first time the synagogue was attacked, it hit Gilmore hard.
“We all have that deep-seated fear as a Jewish people that one day something’s going to happen, to our synagogue,” school, home or childcare centre, he reflects.
“Waking up to those vandalism [incidents] [represents] that fear being actualized.”
KST’s executive director has learned to adapt and anticipate, figuring out next steps after an incident: “Who needs to talk to the police?”
“Now in my head I’ve unfortunately worked that into my routine,” he said, coming to anticipate that “we’re probably going to get vandalized again.”
“How do we navigate everyday shul life while always getting vandalized? How do I make sure I organize my day well enough … [so that] I could deal with the police… with getting things fixed [if] they need to be,” mused Gilmore.
The first incident, in April, involved a suspect smashing five windows with a hammer and was followed by a dead raccoon being left in the shul parking lot, which was not deemed to be a suspected hate-motivated occurrence. Another hammer attack followed May 17.
Next came a June 30 incident involving projectiles someone threw at the building that Gilmore says were designed to damage the windows.
“It wasn’t rocks, because they made these little explosions when it hit our window,” he said. “Luckily we already had the polycarbonate [window coverings] on, it prevented projectiles from getting through the windows, but they still shattered the glass behind it, and it created… a small, not explosion, but it kind of broke apart, exploded a bit when it hit the polycarbonate covering. [Those] weren’t rocks for sure… [the person] brought those with [them].”
Gilmore characterizes the people vandalizing the synagogue as cowards.
“Never in my life have I thought, ‘oh, it’s 3 in the morning. I’m going to go vandalize a place of worship, try and scare some people.’ I mean, I’m asleep… a person who has a life that’s filled with commitments, they can’t do [that]. The person whose life is filled with hate and just wants to destroy, they find the time.”
Gilmore has developed a working rapport with police and has maintained contact with the police Hate Crimes Unit during its investigations.
The eight separate incidents don’t follow any predictable sequence of events. However, Gilmore has noticed distinguishing details about the individual suspects when reviewing security videos.
“The person who smashed the windows was left-handed when they use the hammer. The person who threw the projectiles through our windows was right-handed. They came on a motorcycle. The person that [set the sign on fire, on July 31] was right-handed. They came in and they lit the sign on fire and then went south on a motorcycle again.”
The suspect in the two December incidents, whose images police released earlier in January, “came without a mask” and had “different hats” according to Gilmore—and they seemed to be a different suspect than other vandalism incidents.
As to why his synagogue has been singled out, he believes it’s KST’s location.
The synagogue is not on the heavily-travelled Bathurst Street corridor, home to many of the city’s Jewish institutions. The building is easily visible along a road with no close residential neighbours in sight, and is just a few blocks from Highway 401, where vandals can make a quick escape.
“I think it’s… some [part] opportunities, some [part] where we are located, and … in the area, that they know the synagogue and it’s the easiest place for them to vandalize.”
Gilmore has overseen a range of security upgrades and additional expenses since spring 2024, including adding additional security video cameras, and in some cases replacing them with better cameras. A new access control system enables him to see “who enters the building, when they enter, when they leave” and a security fence was recently installed around the entire premises.
Windows that were broken have been replaced, and polycarbonate security coverings were layered atop those windows in addition to a security film to prevent anyone from actually entering the synagogue if they managed to get through the polycarbonate covering. Security film was also added to glass door replacements.
Night time security guards were also hired depending on the news from Israel, for instance when Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed, and during Jewish holidays.
Gilmore says the security company has been responsive to KST’s needs. However, the synagogue can’t afford to have security guards on-site permanently.
The federal programs to assist communities experiencing hate crime attacks will, eventually, reimburse half the cost of upgrades, says Gilmore, but he finds the process of applying for the Public Safety Canada grants unduly slow and onerous.
Worse for this particular congregation—whose clever wordplay slogans on its roadside sign have earned global attention online—is that Gilmore finds they are caught in a bureaucratic catch-22. The shul’s security grant application was made under the previous Security Infrastructure Program (SIP) and reimburses up to 50 percent of total costs.
That application and reimbursement process was already underway when the new version of the program, Canada Community Security Program (CCSP), which reimburses up to 70 percent, was rolled out—but work begun or undertaken under the previous program’s funding can’t be funded by the new program.
Gilmore can’t apply for the increased reimbursement for any work that’s already been done, and would lose the current 50 percent reimbursement grant if he pulled out of SIP to instead apply under CCSP.
‘This whole thing has been a headache basically for every other synagogue director I’ve spoken to,” he said. He explains that after KST was vandalized, it qualified for the federal program’s fast-tracked funding stream, called Severe Hate-Motivated Incident Support.
“When I initially submitted the application, we’d only been vandalized once, when the process had started… by the time it was all finished, we’ve been vandalized four times. It took a few months to get everything approved. We had to go through and calculate all the costs that we would be applying for.”
He says it’s a fault in the system that’s set up to appear to be doing more than it really is, and in the process creates onerous tasks for security grant applicants who are in the middle of responding to unsettling incidents.
“I’m not sure how they came up with [these programs]… it feels like no members of the groups this is supposed to help have had input,” said Gilmore.
He says he understands the government’s attempt to support communities who’ve been targeted, “however, if they’d spoken to member of Jewish community… synagogues, schools … they’d see how effective the program actually is.
“It feels like the government talking to the people [they’re supposed to help], rather than a partnership,” which Gilmore finds “unfortunate, but common.”
Fortunately, a “KS Strong” fund raising drive in 2024 helped the shul pay for the upgrades, which he says came out to $151,286, with a federal grant reimbursing half, or $75,643. He notes that donations came not only from members but also from the wider community around the synagogue.
In addition, Jewish Security Network (JSN), the new independent agency that absorbed the security operation previously housed under the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, has been supporting KST with security consulting, assessments, advice on upgrades and procedures, and providing some of the funding for the synagogue’s security costs.
According to Gilmore, the security recommendations from the JSN team, then with UJA, matched those of TPS nearly identically.
JSN’s director, Jevon Greenblatt, confirmed that JSN has committed to paying a portion of KST’s security upgrade cost, but declined to say how much.
The area’s new Toronto city councillor, Rachel Chernos-Lin, cited the vandalized synagogue at a city hall meeting in December, during discussion on a bylaw proposal to prevent demonstrations from encroaching on community spaces as well as grants to protect vulnerable buildings from car attacks. After about 90 minutes of debate, a vote secured the funding and a request to staff to develop the bylaw proposal.
“At City Hall, we often speak about the beauty of Toronto being our diversity. But increasingly Jewish families in Toronto are being targeted with hate and real antisemitism, and we as a council… cannot let this continue,” Chernos-Lin said at the council meeting Dec. 18.
“No community in Toronto should have to live in fear. No community in Toronto should be held responsible for the actions of governments in other parts of the world because of their religious affiliation. For many in my community, it doesn’t feel like meaningful action has been taken to combat antisemitism, not just at the city level but by all levels of government, and so I believe it is up to us as a council to say ‘enough is enough’ and ‘what can we do?’”
In an interview with The CJN, Chernos-Lin, formerly a school trustee for the ward, said she’s heard criticisms that there’s been a lack of government taking action.
Jewish Torontonians, including in her ward, she says, want to know “‘why are we a year in and not seeing anything being done?”
“The longer we go, and allow hate to manifest, the worse it’s going to get and the harder it’s going to be to stop it down the road,” she said.
“If we really care about everybody in our city, we have to be standing up for Jews.”
Ruth Urbach, a longtime member of KST—whose services roamed from area homes to rental facilities for nearly a decade, as it gradually settled into a permanent building on the site of a house that was later demolished—says the close-knit congregation has been brought even closer of late, but there’s much more to community life than these incidents.
“I would hope people know when they think of the synagogue not to think that we’re all only dwelling on this, and frightened. You can come to the shul and it might not even come up. It doesn’t inform every interaction that we have,” she told The CJN.
“It’s something that’s going on. We wish it hadn’t happened and we really hope that there will be arrests. No synagogue should have to deal with anything like this,” said Urbach, who is also a current board member—though she added “the shul’s dealing with it very well.”
The congregation has always included a significant portion of members from the South African Jewish community, reflecting the majority of the founding families. Celebrations and events for its 45th anniversary are in the works for later in the year; several members who signed the original article of incorporation are still around.
When the celebration is being planned, the “hateful incidents” of 2024 don’t come to mind, according to Urbach.
Michael Gilmore says the synagogue refuses to back down in the face of vandalism, which may be why it has been targeted so frequently.
“They [vandals] could do whatever they want to do, and it’s not going to stop us from being proud Jews… from being proud members… I think that is the overall feeling… of strength and unity, and carry on with life,” he said.
After the first vandalism the community united in a message of defiance to vandals and attackers.
“You’re going to try and break us… we’re not going to be broken,” he said, remembering a response from the synagogue’s rabbi, assembled in block letters on the permanent sign outside the building.
“Windows shatter easily. Communities don’t,” said Gilmore, quoting Rabbi Kanofsky’s now most-circulated outdoor sign message. “That’s what has really been our mantra.”
The post How a repeatedly vandalized Toronto synagogue is navigating a new era of security appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Iran Criticizes Arab-Islamic Summit Statement, Flags Objections After Doha Meeting
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, attends the emergency Arab-Islamic leaders’ summit in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: Hassan Bargash Al Menhali / UAE Presidential Court/Handout via REUTERS
Iran has criticized the final statement of the Arab-Islamic Summit held in Doha on Monday as insufficient, in the wake of last week’s Israeli attack targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Qatar.
In a statement released shortly after the summit, Iran reaffirmed its “unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination,” while arguing that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot adequately address the Palestinian issue.
According to the Iranian delegation, “the only real and lasting solution is the establishment of a single democratic state across all of Palestine, through a referendum involving all Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories.”
On Monday, Qatar held a summit of Arab and Islamic nations in the aftermath of last week’s Israeli strike on Hamas, with leaders gathering to express support and discuss regional responses.
The Sept. 9 strike targeting leaders of the Palestinian terrorist group in Doha marked a significant escalation of Israeli military operations, reflecting Jerusalem’s broader efforts to dismantle the terrorist group amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
Expressing solidarity with Qatar, summit leaders condemned Israel’s strike, labeling it “cowardly, illegal, and a threat to collective regional security.”
In the final statement, the heads of state declared that “an assault on a state acting as a neutral mediator in the Gaza crisis is not only a hostile act against Qatar but also a direct blow to international peace-building efforts.”
Alongside the United States and other regional powers, Qatar has served as a ceasefire mediator during the nearly two-year Gaza conflict, facilitating indirect negotiations between the Jewish state and Hamas.
However, Doha has also backed the Palestinian terrorist group for years, providing Hamas with money and diplomatic support while hosting and sheltering its top leadership.
During the summit, Arab and Muslim leaders called for a review of diplomatic and economic relations with Israel while firmly opposing any attempts to displace Palestinians.
In the final statement, the heads of state also emphasized resisting Israel’s efforts to “impose new realities on the ground,” urged enforcement of International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants for Israeli leaders over war crime allegations adamantly denied by Jerusalem, and coordinated actions to suspend Israel’s UN membership.
Although Iran participated in the summit and endorsed the declaration, its delegation issued a separate statement shortly afterward clarifying that doing so “must in no way be interpreted, explicitly or implicitly, as recognition of the Israeli regime,” reaffirming its rejection of the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Iranian leaders regularly declare their intention to destroy Israel, the world’s lone Jewish state.
The statement also stressed that the Palestinian people have the right to employ “all necessary means to achieve their inalienable right to self-determination,” emphasizing that backing this cause is “a shared duty of the international community.”
As the heads of Arab and Islamic states convened for a summit on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned he did not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders “wherever they are.”
During a diplomatic visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed strong support for Israel’s position, even as Washington previously voiced concerns over the strike in Qatar, a US ally.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Rubio said the only way to end the war in Gaza would be for Hamas to free all hostages and surrender. While the US wants a diplomatic end to the war, “we have to be prepared for the possibility that’s not going to happen,” he said.
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“Your Name Was Included”: UC Berkeley Cooperating With Trump Administration, Admits to Disclosing Names
Students attend a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at University of California, Berkeley during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Berkeley, US, April 23, 2024. Photo: Carlos Barria via Reuters Connect
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is cooperating with the Trump administration’s inquiry into campus antisemitism, providing materials containing the names of some 160 people identified in disciplinary reports and other official documents.
As first reported by The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley’s official campus newspaper, the university’s Office of Legal Affairs notified every person affected by the mass disclosure, writing to them on Sept. 4.
“Last spring, the [US Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, or OCR]] initiated investigations regarding allegations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination at UC Berkeley. As part of its investigation, OCR required production of comprehensive documents, including files and reports related to alleged antisemitic incidents,” chief campus counsel David Robinson wrote. “This notice is to inform you that, as required by law and as per directions provided by the UC systemic Office of General Counsel, your name was included in report as part of the documents provided by OGC [Office of General Counsel] to OCR for its investigations on Aug. 18, 2025.”
He added, “These documents contained information about reports or responses related to antisemitic incidents.”
Anti-Israel activists told the Californian that the university is helping the Trump administration hunt witches.
“I think the message was sent to anybody has who has ever been accused of antisemitism, which of course, includes a lot of Palestinians,” one said, claiming that he has been falsely accused. “Whenever we teach about Palestine, it usually leads to an investigation. I think they flagged and sent all of that information to the federal government.”
Students for Justice in Palestine, infamous for its ties to jihadist terror organizations, also criticized the move, charging that the administration had promised to conceal their identities and thereby obstruct the government’s inquiry.
“Chancellor Rich Lyons should not have given assurances that he wouldn’t be giving our information to the federal government,” the group said. “Beyond that, he should never have bowed down so easily. I would think that a university that prides itself on being this liberal haven would at least stand up to a fascist like Donald Trump.”
UC Berkeley came under scrutiny in 2024 after a mob of hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and non-students shut down an event at its Zellerbach Hall featuring Israeli reservist Ran Bar-Yoshafat, forcing Jewish students to flee to a secret safe room as the protesters overwhelmed campus police.
Footage of the incident showed a frenzied mass of anti-Zionist agitators banging on the doors of Zellerbach. The mob then, according to witnesses, eventually stormed the building — breaking windows in the process, according to reports in The Daily Wire — and precipitated the decision to evacuate the area. During the infiltration of Zellerbach, one of the mob — assembled by Bears for Palestine, which had earlier proclaimed its intention to cancel the event — spit on a Jewish student and called him a “Jew,” pejoratively.
Other incidents, including the university’s employment of a lecturer who tweeted antisemitic images — one of which accused Israel of organ harvesting, a blood libel — the rewarding of academic benefits for participating in anti-Zionist activity, and the banning of Zionist speakers from Berkeley Law, have raised concerns about anti-Jewish hated on campus. In 2017, The Algemeiner ranked UC Berkeley as number five on “The 40 Worst Colleges for Jewish Students.”
In August, an Israeli professor sued the university, alleging that school officials denied her a job because she is Israeli — a claim its own investigators corroborated in an internal investigation, according to her attorneys at the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Filed in the Alameda County Superior Court, the complaint is seeking justice for Dr. Yael Nativ, who taught in UC Berkeley’s Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies as a visiting professor in 2022 and received an invitation to apply to do so again for the 2024-2025 academic year just weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel.
A hiring official allegedly believed, however, that an Israeli professor in the department would be unpalatable to students and faculty.
“My dept [sic] cannot host you for a class next fall,” the official allegedly told Nativ in a WhatsApp message. “Things are very hot here right now and many of our grad students are angry. I would be putting the dept and you in a terrible position if you taught here.”
Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) later initiated an investigation of Nativ’s denial after the professor wrote an opinion essay which publicly accused the school of cowardice and violations of her civil rights. OPHD determined that a “preponderance of evidence” proved Nativ’s claim, but school officials went on to ignore the professor’s requests for an apology and other remedial measures, including sending her a renewed invitation to teach dance. After nearly two years, the situation remains unresolved.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Israel Issues Travel Warning Ahead of Jewish Holidays Amid Rising Attacks, Discrimination Targeting Israelis Abroad
A flag is flown during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, outside the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, France, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Israel has issued a travel warning ahead of the upcoming Jewish high holidays and the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, atrocities, alerting citizens of heightened terrorist threats against Israelis and Jewish communities abroad.
On Sunday, the National Security Council (NSC) urged travelers to stay alert, cautioning that the two-year anniversary of the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel could trigger attacks by Iran-backed or Hamas-linked terrorist groups targeting Jews and Israelis abroad.
“The recent period has been characterized by continued efforts to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets by the various terrorist organizations (most of them led by Iran and Hamas),” the NSC said in a statement.
“Oct. 7 may again serve as a significant date for terrorist organizations,” the statement read.
Israeli officials warned that the threat mainly stems from Iran and its terrorist proxies, which have increasingly targeted Jews and Israelis beyond Israel’s borders.
In recent months, the NSC reported that dozens of plots have been thwarted, even as violent incidents — including physical attacks, antisemitic threats, and online incitement — have continued to rise.
“With the war ongoing and the terror threat growing, we are witnessing an escalation in antisemitic violence and provocations by anti-Israel elements,” the NSC said in its statement.
“This trend may inspire extremists to carry out attacks against Israelis or Jews abroad,” it continued.
According to the NSC, Iran remains the leading source of terrorism against Israelis and Jews worldwide, acting both directly and through proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
“Iranian motivation is growing in light of the severe blows it suffered in the framework of ‘Operation Rising Lion’ and the growing desire for revenge,” the NSC said in a statement, referring to the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Amid rising tensions over the war in Gaza, Israeli officials have previously warned of Iranian sleeper cells — covert operatives or terrorists embedded in rival countries who remain dormant until they receive orders to act and carry out attacks.
In light of this reality, the NSC also warned that social media posts revealing ties to Israeli security services could put individuals at risk of being targeted.
“We advise against posting any content that suggests involvement in the security services or operational activities, including real-time location updates,” the statement read.
This latest updated warning comes amid a growing hostile environment and a shocking surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes targeting Jews and Israelis worldwide.
Across Europe, Israelis are facing a disturbing surge of targeted attacks and hostility, as a wave of antisemitic incidents — from violent assaults and vandalism to protests and legal actions — spreads amid rising tensions following recent conflicts in the Middle East.
On Saturday, a 29-year-old Israeli and his sister were attacked by three Palestinian men while on vacation in Athens, Greece.
According to local media reports, the two siblings were walking through the city’s center when three unknown individuals carrying Palestinian flags approached them, shouting antisemitic slurs.
The attackers assaulted the Israeli man, a disabled Israel Defense Forces (IDF) veteran, scratching him, throwing him to the ground, and striking him with their flagpoles, while his sister attempted to intervene and protect him.
October 7 is a global war against Jews & Israelis.
Pro-Palestinian radicals just attacked an Israeli man in Syntagma Square, Athens. via @N12News https://t.co/IZR2IdNrUI pic.twitter.com/9S2o4IjtO6
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) September 14, 2025
Greek authorities arrested all five individuals involved in the incident. According to the Israeli man’s father, his son was placed in a cell with 10 Arabs, where he was reportedly beaten again and feared for his life.
In a separate antisemitic incident earlier this year, a group of Israeli teenagers was physically assaulted by dozens of pro-Palestinian assailants — some reportedly armed with knives — on the Greek island of Rhodes.
After leaving a nightclub, the teens were followed to their hotel, where they were violently assaulted, leaving several with minor injuries.
In another example of rising anti-Israel sentiment and hostility toward Jewish communities, one of Britain’s most prestigious military academies, the Royal College of Defense Studies, announced Sunday that it will bar Israeli students from enrolling next year, citing concerns over the war in Gaza.
In Belgium, two IDF soldiers attending the Tomorrowland music festival were arrested and interrogated by local authorities following a complaint from the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), an anti-Israel legal group that pursues legal action against IDF personnel, accusing them of involvement in war crimes.
According to HRF, the soldiers were seen waving the flags of the IDF’s Givati Brigade, which they claimed has been “involved in the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza and in carrying out mass atrocities against the Palestinian population.”
In France, a 34-year-old Algerian man was sentenced to 40 months in prison for threatening passengers with a knife and making antisemitic death threats after boarding a train at Cannes station.
In another incident earlier this year, a Jewish man wearing a kippah was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in Anduze, a small town in southern France.