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Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute
Two months after their 13-year-old son Tyler Wallace-Cohen died, his parents Jennifer Wallace and Eric Cohen did what their son would have wanted them to do and banished the mid-January darkness by filling their yard with glowing lights, inflatables and joy.
In the midst of the colourful display was the logo for Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, the genetic disorder that led to Tyler’s death in November 2024.
The family invited friends, classmates and neighbours to drive by the Toronto house and give a honk, or get out of their car and enjoy the lights display, take photos and share stories about Tyler. The special event was called Twinkling Tribute Hour for Tyler.
“We wanted to bring joy to others during the holiday season and shine a light on Tyler and the kind of kid he was,” said Wallace.
He was known for his infectious smile and cheering up those around him.
“Tyler would always champion for others. If someone was having a bad day or being bullied, he would always step in and advocate for that person,” said Wallace.
Tyler had no shortage of challenges himself. When Wallace was pregnant, the couple went to an ultrasound early on and found out there was a ‘laundry list of problems’ with their unborn child.
They decided to continue the pregnancy and hope for the best. After a difficult labour, Tyler was born and immediately whisked away by a medical team.
“In the middle of the night, Jen called me and said that he may not make it through the night, and I had to go to SickKids (Hospital),” said Cohen.
Tyler survived but this was the first of many dire medical situations that he would face throughout his life including 17 surgeries, four being major heart procedures.
He lived with Loeys-Dietz, a rare genetic disorder that affects connective tissue. It can cause aneurysms in the aorta and other arteries, as well as other abnormalities.
When he was born, there were fewer than 500 people worldwide with this diagnosis and he had one of the most severe cases the doctors had seen.
“We made it our mission that he was going to not just defy the odds but beat them,” said Wallace.
They tried to ensure Tyler did everything that other kids did including going to school, participating in extracurricular activities, and more.
“A cardiologist said to me, ‘we’re going to give him the best medical care that he can possibly have. Your job is to let him just be a kid,’ and so we did.” said Cohen.
They took family trips and tried to enjoy life as much as possible. One year they went to Niagara Falls and upgraded to the Presidential Suite.
“When Tyler found out, he was so happy and excited. He looked at me and goes, ‘Mom, we’re big ballers’,” recalled Wallace.
At one time, Tyler was followed by 18 different healthcare professionals. Tema Stein was Tyler’s osteopath. They first met when he was less than two years old.
“When he first came to me, he couldn’t bear weight on his feet. He couldn’t stand or walk,” said Stein.
She helped expand Tyler’s capabilities in different ways including introducing him to Kyoshi Dominic Moscone at the Northern Karate School.
“When I first heard about the medical issues he was going through, I was a bit skeptical. I was told to just meet him and right away he stole my heart,” said Moscone.
They started working together for just 10 minutes at a time because of his condition. They made their big goal to get up to an hour.
“His knees would buckle and he would fall over due to muscular imbalance. I would test his balance, push him over a bit. I would ask him if he fell and he would say no or that he almost fell. The almost fall was a huge accomplishment because it meant he could control that stuff,” said Moscone.
Before long, they were training together consistently every Saturday. They worked together for about seven years.
“He accomplished everything according to the same curriculum as everyone else,” said Moscone.
Just last year, Tyler got his black belt. According to Moscone, he never gave up no matter how difficult things were and his parents also played a big role in this major accomplishment.
“He’s a one in a million kid,” said Moscone, “He’s going to be deeply missed. He lived a short but meaningful life. He brightened the lives of everyone he came in contact with.”
Moscone attended the twinkle tribute hour with his sons last week.
“It was amazing. You look at his parents and his whole family and you can see why Tyler was as good as he was. They’re making this terrible thing into something fantastic. It’s just what they do,” he said.
On Nov. 5, 2024, Tyler had his 16th surgery, this time for his aorta. Just two days later, he had chest reconstruction surgery. He came home from the hospital and was recovering at home.
Shortly after, he wasn’t doing well and his parents took him back to SickKids.
“I was hoping it was just a panic attack and the pain was related to the surgeries. But when they hooked him up to the heart monitors, all hell broke loose,” said Cohen.
The doctors did everything they could to try and save Tyler one last time.
“The doctor came over and said there’s nothing we can do, your son is dying. Everyone just left the room and we were alone with him.” said Cohen. “It was the worst feeling because I knew he was gone.”
The couple said the holidays were an incredibly difficult time for them and their family but soon Wallace had an idea.
“Jen convinced me to put up the inflatables and then we started to expand it,” said Eric.
They started to get more inflatables donated to them and it just kept expanding. Eventually, the yard was filled with light and colour.
“We did everything we could to turn that darkness into something bright and fun because that’s what Tyler would have wanted us to do,” said Cohen.
At the tribute evening, they were joined by friends, family, community members, and even the police who flashed their lights and honked their horns in honour of Tyler.
“Tyler would have loved this and the world needs more kind, caring, and compassionate people like him,” said Wallace.
Proceeds from the event went to SickKids Hospital.
The post Toronto family remembers their son, Tyler Wallace-Cohen, with a twinkling tribute appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Syria’s Sharaa Says Talks With Israel Could Yield Results ‘In Coming Days’
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks at the opening ceremony of the 62nd Damascus International Fair, the first edition held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Wednesday that ongoing negotiations with Israel to reach a security pact could lead to results “in the coming days.”
He told reporters in Damascus the security pact was a “necessity” and that it would need to respect Syria’s airspace and territorial unity and be monitored by the United Nations.
Syria and Israel are in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israeli airstrikes and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.
Reuters reported this week that Washington was pressuring Syria to reach a deal before world leaders gather next week for the UN General Assembly in New York.
But Sharaa, in a briefing with journalists including Reuters ahead of his expected trip to New York to attend the meeting, denied the US was putting any pressure on Syria and said instead that it was playing a mediating role.
He said Israel had carried out more than 1,000 strikes on Syria and conducted more than 400 ground incursions since Dec. 8, when the rebel offensive he led toppled former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa said Israel’s actions were contradicting the stated American policy of a stable and unified Syria, which he said was “very dangerous.”
He said Damascus was seeking a deal similar to a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that created a demilitarized zone between the two countries.
He said Syria sought the withdrawal of Israeli troops but that Israel wanted to remain at strategic locations it seized after Dec. 8, including Mount Hermon. Israeli ministers have publicly said Israel intends to keep control of the sites.
He said if the security pact succeeds, other agreements could be reached. He did not provide details, but said a peace agreement or normalization deal like the US-mediated Abraham Accords, under which several Muslim-majority countries agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel, was not currently on the table.
He also said it was too early to discuss the fate of the Golan Heights because it was “a big deal.”
Reuters reported this week that Israel had ruled out handing back the zone, which Donald Trump unilaterally recognized as Israeli during his first term as US president.
“It’s a difficult case – you have negotiations between a Damascene and a Jew,” Sharaa told reporters, smiling.
SECURITY PACT DERAILED IN JULY
Sharaa also said Syria and Israel had been just “four to five days” away from reaching the basis of a security pact in July, but that developments in the southern province of Sweida had derailed those discussions.
Syrian troops were deployed to Sweida in July to quell fighting between Druze armed factions and Bedouin fighters. But the violence worsened, with Syrian forces accused of execution-style killings and Israel striking southern Syria, the defense ministry in Damascus and near the presidential palace.
Sharaa on Wednesday described the strikes near the presidential palace as “not a message, but a declaration of war,” and said Syria had still refrained from responding militarily to preserve the negotiations.
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Anti-Israel Activists Gear Up to ‘Flood’ UN General Assembly
US Capitol Police and NYPD officers clash with anti-Israel demonstrators, on the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, July 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Anti-Israel groups are planning a wave of raucous protests in New York City during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the next several days, prompting concerns that the demonstrations could descend into antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation.
A coalition of anti-Israel activists is organizing the protests in and around UN headquarters to coincide with speeches from Middle Eastern leaders and appearances by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstrations are expected to draw large crowds and feature prominent pro-Palestinian voices, some of whom have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic tropes, in addition to calling for the destruction of Israe.
Organizers of the demonstrations have promoted the coordinated events on social media as an opportunity to pressure world leaders to hold Israel accountable for its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, with some messaging framed in sharply hostile terms.
On Sunday, for example, activists shouted at Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon.
“Zionism is terrorism. All you guys are terrorists committing ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. Shame on you, Zionist animals,” they shouted.
BREAKING: PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTORS CONFRONT “ISRAELI” AMBASSADOR DANNY DANON AT THE UNITED NATIONS
1/5 pic.twitter.com/4G1VYEMGzV
— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) September 14, 2025
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), warned on its website that the scale and tone of the planned demonstrations risk crossing the line from political protest into hate speech, arguing that anti-Israel activists are attempting to hijack the UN gathering to spread antisemitism and delegitimize the Jewish state’s right to exist.
Outside the UN last week, masked protesters belonging to the activist group INDECLINE kicked a realistic replica of Netanyahu’s decapitated head as though it were a soccer ball.
US activist group plays soccer with Bibi’s mock decapitated HEAD right outside NYC UN HQ
Peep shot at 00:40
Footage posted by INDECLINE collective just as UN General Assembly about to kick off
‘Following the game, ball was donated to Palestinian Genocide Museum’ pic.twitter.com/TQ84sgZhKr
— RT (@RT_com) September 9, 2025
Within Our Lifetime (WOL), a radical anti-Israel activist group, has vowed to “flood” the UNGA on behalf of the pro-Palestine movement.
WOL, one of the most prolific anti-Israel activist groups, came under immense fire after it organized a protest against an exhibition to honor the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel. During the event, the group chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied!” and “Israel, go to hell!”
“We will be there to confront them with the truth: Their silence and inaction enable genocide. The world cannot continue as if Gaza does not exist,” WOL said of its planned demonstrations in New York. “This is the time to make our voices impossible to ignore. Come to New York by any means necessary, to stand, to march, to demand the UN act and end the siege.”
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), two other anti-Israel organizations that have helped organize widespread demonstrations against the Jewish state during the war in Gaza, also announced they are planning a march from Times Square to the UN headquarters on Friday.
“The time is now for each and every UN member state to uphold their duty under international law: sanction Israel and end the genocide,” the groups said in a statement.
JVP, an organization that purports to fight for “Palestinian liberation,” has positioned itself as a staunch adversary of the Jewish state. The group argued in a 2021 booklet that Jews should not write Hebrew liturgy because hearing the language would be “deeply traumatizing” to Palestinians. JVP has repeatedly defended the Oct. 7 massacre of roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel by Hamas as a justified “resistance.” Chapters of the organization have urged other self-described “progressives” to throw their support behind Hamas and other terrorist groups against Israel
Similarly, PYM, another radical anti-Israel group, has repeatedly defended terrorism and violence against the Jewish state. PYM has organized many anti-Israel protests in the two years following the Oct. 7 attacks in the Jewish state. Recently, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) called for a federal investigation into the organization after Aisha Nizar, one of the group’s leaders, urged supporters to sabotage the US supply chain for the F-35 fighter jet, one of the most advanced US military assets and a critical component of Israel’s defense.
The UN General Assembly has historically been a flashpoint for heated debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Previous gatherings have seen dueling demonstrations outside the Manhattan venue, with pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups both seeking to influence the international spotlight.
While warning about the demonstrations, CAM noted it recently launched a new mobile app, Report It, that allows users worldwide to quickly and securely report antisemitic incidents in real time.
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Nina Davidson Presses Universities to Back Words With Action as Jewish Students Return to Campus Amid Antisemitism Crisis
Nina Davidson on The Algemeiner’s ‘J100’ podcast. Photo: Screenshot
Philanthropist Nina Davidson, who served on the board of Barnard College, has called on universities to pair tough rhetoric on combatting antisemitism with enforcement as Jewish students returned to campuses for the new academic year.
“Years ago, The Algemeiner had published a list ranking the most antisemitic colleges in the country. And number one was Columbia,” Davidson recalled on a recent episode of The Algemeiner‘s “J100” podcast. “As a board member and as someone who was representing the institution, it really upset me … At the board meeting, I brought it up and I said, ‘What are we going to do about this?’”
Host David Cohen, chief executive officer of The Algemeiner, explained he had revisited Davidson’s remarks while she was being honored for her work at The Algemeiner‘s 8th annual J100 gala, held in October 2021, noting their continued relevance.
“It could have been the same speech in 2025,” he said, underscoring how longstanding concerns about campus antisemitism, while having intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, are not new.
Davidson argued that universities already possess the tools to protect students – codes of conduct, time-place-manner rules, and consequences for threats or targeted harassment – but too often fail to apply them evenly. “Statements are not enough,” she said, arguing that institutions need to enforce their rules and set a precedent that there will be consequences for individuals who refuse to follow them.
She also said that stakeholders – alumni, parents, and donors – are reassessing their relationships with schools that, in their view, have not safeguarded Jewish students. While supportive of open debate, Davidson distinguished between protest and intimidation, calling for leadership that protects expression while ensuring campus safety.
The episode surveyed specific pressure points that administrators will face this fall: repeat anti-Israel encampments, disruptions of Jewish programming, and the challenge of distinguishing political speech from conduct that violates university rules. “Unless schools draw those lines now,” Davidson warned, “they’ll be scrambling once the next crisis hits.”
Cohen closed by framing the discussion as a test of institutional credibility, asking whether universities will “turn policy into protection” in real time. Davidson agreed, pointing to students who “need to know the rules aren’t just on paper.”
The full conversation is available on The Algemeiner’s “J100” podcast.