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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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Why Is Qatar Getting Away with Undermining US Interests?
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
While much of the American foreign policy conversation is consumed by China, Russia, and Iran, a far more insidious actor has been hiding in plain sight: Qatar.
This tiny Gulf state has managed to infiltrate the American political ecosystem with surgical precision — through influence operations, media manipulation, academic funding, and elite lobbying. Its endgame? To bend US policy in its favor while funding the very extremists we claim to be fighting.
For too long, Washington has treated Qatar as a quirky ally — an oil-rich outlier hosting the largest American military base in the Middle East — Al Udeid. But behind the airbase is a monarchy that plays both arsonist and firefighter: funding Islamist terror groups like Hamas while simultaneously branding itself as a necessary “mediator.” That’s not diplomacy — it’s blackmail.
Qatar isn’t challenging US power head-on; it’s buying access, shaping discourse, and laundering its image through think tanks, universities, and former officials. The result is a foreign policy establishment increasingly compromised by Qatari influence — and unwilling to hold Doha accountable.
Qatar has spent billions pouring into America’s elite institutions: Georgetown, Brookings, RAND, and more. These aren’t charitable donations; they’re strategic investments in influence. What happens when the same think tanks advising US policymakers are on the Qatari payroll? What happens when former diplomats and retired generals take consulting fees from a regime that funds Hamas and cheers on Al Jazeera’s anti-Western propaganda?
After the October 7 Hamas massacre — one of the most brutal acts of terrorism in modern memory — Qatar remained untouched. While its ties to Hamas were public and long-standing, Qatar wasn’t sanctioned, pressured, or even criticized. Instead, it was elevated as a “key negotiator” in hostage talks. Imagine that: a state that hosts Hamas leaders in five-star hotels was rewarded with diplomatic prestige after the terrorists it bankrolls slaughtered civilians. That is influence at work.
The fact that the US continues to rely on Qatar as a go-between reveals the depth of the problem. US institutions — media, government, academia — have been too thoroughly compromised to challenge the narrative. Every time the US spares Qatar from consequences, it sends a clear message: American foreign policy is for sale.
In Israel, a corruption scandal now dubbed “Qatargate” has exposed how deep Qatar’s reach extends. Israeli media reported secret payments, PR services, and cozy ties between Netanyahu’s communications team and Qatari operatives. Arrests were made. Gag orders issued. The Shin Bet launched an investigation. The scandal has rocked the Israeli government — not because Qatar did something unusual, but because someone finally got caught.
If Qatar can manipulate a tightly surveilled, security-conscious country like Israel, what has it already done in a distracted, divided, lobby-saturated Washington?
Qatar has retained some of the most powerful lobbying firms in D.C., from those connected to Democratic insiders to Republican powerbrokers. It has poured resources into shaping US discourse, often by proxy. It funds conferences, media outlets, cultural programs, and fellowships. It hires former White House staffers and Pentagon officials to lobby Congress, and feed op-eds into major newspapers. The goal isn’t short-term gain. It’s long-term positioning: to ensure that no matter which party is in power, Doha remains untouchable.
Unlike China or Russia, Qatar operates with a velvet glove. There are no cyberattacks or airspace violations — just cash, contracts, and calculated charm. And because its methods don’t trigger alarms, it has gotten away with it.
Qatar undermines US allies like Egypt, funds the Muslim Brotherhood, gives voice to anti-American demagogues, and manipulates Western media through platforms like Al Jazeera. It hosts Taliban leaders one day and strikes multi-billion-dollar gas deals with US companies the next. It’s not an ally. It’s a shapeshifter — wearing whatever mask serves its interests.
The American people need to wake up. Qatar is not simply playing both sides. Its billions buy silence, its PR campaigns buy credibility, and its influence buys exemption from the consequences that any other terror-sponsoring regime would face.
Congress should immediately investigate Qatari lobbying efforts in the United States, including all funding to universities, think tanks, nonprofits, and media organizations. Every foreign donation to a US institution should be publicly disclosed. Any American policymaker, academic, or analyst who takes Qatari money must register it and explain it — clearly.
The Pentagon should reconsider the military relationship with Qatar until a full review of its terror ties and foreign interference operations is conducted. Hosting a US base does not make you an ally. If anything, it makes you more dangerous — because it shields your true motives behind a curtain of cooperation.
We must also reassert moral clarity. There is no world in which funding Hamas and being a responsible stakeholder are compatible. If Qatar wants the privileges of Western partnership, it must be held to Western standards. Until then, it should be treated like any other hostile regime that funds terror, meddles in democracy, and manipulates American policy for its own ends.
This is not about partisanship. Qatar gives to Republicans and Democrats. It hires former officials from both parties. This is about national sovereignty — and the basic principle that American foreign policy should serve the American people, not the ambitions of a royal family in Doha.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
The post Why Is Qatar Getting Away with Undermining US Interests? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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How Canadian Universities Are Allowing Jewish Students to Be Doxxed and Harassed
The Fine Arts Building of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Photo: DXR/Wikimedia Commons
With the rise of the digital age, an entirely new form of harassment and intimidation has emerged. Nameless accounts run by faceless adversaries comment on, post about, and attack others — their identities hidden behind a digital mask.
What’s worse than this anonymous harassment is the increasingly common practice of doxxing, where one’s personal information is released to the public in an effort to intimidate and silence them.
That’s the situation that pro-Israel Jewish Canadians have been facing for over a year — and it threatens free expression, academic integrity, and open discourse.
In the year and a half since October 7, 2023, this harassment has become a common practice on college campuses for students who dare to voice any support for Israel, or criticism of Palestinians or Hamas. My school, McGill University, is no different. Pro-Israel students, Hillel staff, and even McGill security guards have been followed, photographed, and videoed.
A prime example of this phenomenon is the Instagram account, “Shart-Up Nation,” which regularly targets pro-Israel activists and the McGill administration by sharing photos and videos of Jewish students and professionals, and asking followers to find information about them so that they may release it to their 800+ followers.
Their feed and stories are flooded with vicious photos of McGill’s pro-Israel community accompanied by horrible insults, stating that “all Zionists look like this to a certain degree” and comparing Jewish students to an unflattering emoji.
Memes are drenched in antisemitic sentiments — such as one regarding a former hostage’s nose job paralleling the trope of a Jew with a large hooked nose, one suggesting Jews are constantly surveilling people (suspiciously close to the sentiments put forth in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), or even another suggesting that Jews “want to swim in the blood of dead Palestinians,” echoing the age-old blood libel.
This past December, the group came across the Instagram page of another local pro-Israel organization, Allied Voices for Israel. The account manager captured screenshots of students’ faces on an educational trip to Israel, which focused on conversations between Israel and Palestinians “fighting for peace and coexistence.” The doxxers then located their LinkedIn profiles, and posted their academic and personal information along with their full names.
These actions extend far beyond violating privacy — they induce a fear to speak up and make opinions known in the pro-Israel community. It is clear that these actions are a thinly veiled threat — dare to engage in conversation about Israel, no matter if there is nuance, and your professional and personal life will be put at risk.
Despite the vicious posts about students — and the now illegal release of their private information — neither the Concordia nor McGill administration have identified the student perpetrator.
Unfortunately, hiding one’s identity while protesting, chanting some questionable (at best) statements, and performing illegal actions, is nothing new for the pro-Palestinian crowd at McGill.
On October 7th, 2024, students covering their faces with keffiyehs stormed McGill’s campus, pushing down protective barriers and covering school property with graffiti.
Protestors hiding under sunglasses or masks is a common sight on campus. Just recently, a group of masked individuals went so far as to smash over 20 windows in one of McGill’s largest buildings, leaving shards of glass and a terrified student body scattered around campus.
Their masking — and their unwillingness to be associated with their actions — is a tacit acknowledgment that they know what they are doing is wrong. If they were not undertaking destructive, illegal, and harmful actions, why take so much care to hide behind social media accounts and face coverings?
If they truly believe that they are fighting for a just cause and doing it in the correct way, there is no reason that they should feel the need to conceal their involvement or identity. Clearly, then, certain people recognize that their actions place them on the wrong side of history. They know that pushing down fences is not the proper way to instigate social change, that doxxing and humiliating fellow students online is a blatant violation of McGill’s Student Code of Conduct, and that chanting about restarting the “Final solution” while doing a Nazi salute is unacceptable.
If they were proud of their actions, they would not go through so much trouble to hide their identities.
The rise of anonymous harassment and doxxing in Montreal is not just a symptom of political division — it is a threat to the open discourse and academic integrity that is supposed to thrive on college campuses.
And this issue festers in the broader Montreal community as well. The police have yet to make any arrests following extreme acts of vandalism on McGill’s campus in early February; local newspapers misrepresent the facts of the conflict. The mayor of a prominent Jewish community in the city allegedly “tolerates illegal behavior by masked protestors.” McGill and Montreal must break out of this vicious cycle.
If universities fail to address these violations, then they are contributing to a culture where fear reigns supreme and productive dialogue is rendered not just impossible but dangerous. Our institution and our neighbors at Concordia University must take a stand — not just to protect those targeted in today’s world — but for the preservation of open and constructive discourse for generations to come.
Maris Brail is a student at McGill University, pursuing a Joint Honours degree in Jewish Studies and philosophy. As an active member of McGill’s Hillel and Students Supporting Israel executive boards, Maris is committed to fostering a space where Jewish life and advocacy can thrive. She is also a CAMERA on Campus Fellow, dedicated to promoting accurate and fair representations of Israel in academic and media discourse.
The post How Canadian Universities Are Allowing Jewish Students to Be Doxxed and Harassed first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Terror Ties Conveniently Ignored in Lawsuit Accusing British Citizens of Committing ‘War Crimes’ in Gaza
Israeli military jeeps maneuver in Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, Feb. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The Guardian and the BBC reported that 10 British citizens have been accused of committing war crimes in Gaza. The report in question covers the period from October 2023 to May 2024, and was submitted by three parties: renowned British barrister Michael Mansfield, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the British-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC).
Michael Mansfield, nicknamed “Moneybags Mansfield” and dubbed a “Champagne socialist,” built his career on representing underdogs, earning a reputation as a people’s lawyer. That career also brought him substantial financial gain — an income reportedly around £300,000.
This striking contrast between the lawyer’s wealth and his radical rhetoric can raise some concerns regarding his own moral integrity and consistency. But it all pales once compared to the troubling background of the other co-filer of the report.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Its Ties to Terror
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, is the second entity behind the complaint. According to extensive documentation by NGO Monitor, PCHR has longstanding ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a terror organization designated as such by the EU, US, Canada, and Israel.
The PFLP’s long history includes suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations. It also played a role in the brutal October 7 attack on Israeli civilians.
Despite all of it, the director of PCHR, has never distanced himself from the terror group. And why would he do it to his dear alma mater? Yes, you read it right. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights’s director was a member of PFLP. In a 2014 statement, years after assuming his leadership role, Sourani said:
I was in the ranks of the Popular Front, and there were comrades who taught us with their own hands. This organization has given us much more. We hope that the direction and the sense of belonging that were planted inside us will remain in our minds. We don’t apologize and don’t regret our past, we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks. [emphasis added]
So, it comes as no surprise that PFLP members have attended events hosted by PCHR.
And it comes as even less of a surprise that neither The Guardian nor the BBC mentioned PCHR’s ties to terrorists.
British Military Perspective
We asked Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer and veteran of operations in Afghanistan, to comment on the complaint by Michael Mansfield and PCHR. This is what Colonel Kemp, who was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire and the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery, offered to HonestReporting:
This is a despicable political action intended to reinforce anti-Israel smears and to intimidate Jews in the UK. It is a deliberate falsehood to state that the IDF has been carrying out systematic war crimes. The reality is that Israel does all it can to avoid civilian deaths while fighting in Gaza.
I very much doubt that the allegations against these ten individuals are linked to any specific allegations. It is more likely they are using the names of 10 British citizens who are lawful members of the IDF in the general context of false allegations.
If so, there is no possibility of this action leading to convictions in British courts. These lawyers will know this, and their actions are therefore intended as political warfare against Israel. They also want to harass British Jews and discourage them from joining the IDF, which they are lawfully entitled to join under both British and Israeli law.
The British legal system should reject these shameful applications. Britain and Israel are allies, and Britain benefits enormously from Israeli military and intelligence contributions. If these perverse legal proceedings are entertained by the Metropolitan Police or Crown Prosecution Service, that will be an indictment of the UK itself—and a further blow against our Jewish community, which has been under sustained attack and discrimination by the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas mobs since October 7, 2023.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Terror Ties Conveniently Ignored in Lawsuit Accusing British Citizens of Committing ‘War Crimes’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.