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Jewish students report intimidation and closures as Oct. 7 anniversary sparks campus unrest
The second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel was marked by vigils, protests and heated confrontations that Jewish students say left them feeling unprotected on their own campuses, while administrators issued statements about safety and free expression.
In Montreal, one university pre-emptively shut down its downtown campus. At the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus, a vigil honouring Palestinian ‘martyrs’ ended with Jewish students being escorted out a back door. In Toronto, a high school’s decision to play O Canada in Arabic on Oct. 7 earned a rebuke from Ontario’s education minister.
StandWithUs Canada called Oct. 7 “a challenging day for Jewish and pro-Israel students,” saying many “fell victim to targeted harassment from antisemitic protesters” as they tried to mark the anniversary by displaying hostage photos and Israeli flags.
Montreal: Concordia closes, McGill sees flag burning and police warnings
In Montreal, Concordia University took the extraordinary step of closing its downtown Sir George Williams campus on Oct. 7, citing “the threat of extreme disruption.”
In a letter to students, vice-president and vice-chancellor Graham Carr said the decision was made “to protect our entire community” after two non-students were arrested the previous day—one allegedly carrying “a metal bar and several incendiary devices.”
“With hundreds of protesters from other universities and CEGEPs expected, as well as counter-protesters not linked to the university planning to gather outside our downtown campus this afternoon,” Carr wrote, “the threat of extreme disruption is simply too high to operate as usual. Acts of intimidation and violence have no place in our society.”
Concordia’s communications office had already reminded students that violence would not be tolerated and that those who wished to attend classes should be able to do so “without disruption or harassment.” But for many Jewish students, the shutdown felt like capitulation.
“It really scared many normal students who just want to go to class,” said Anastasia Zorchinsky, founder and co-president of the Startup Nation Concordia chapter. “It shows the university is giving in to the violence.”
Hundreds of officers—more than 600, according to Montreal police—patrolled the downtown core, sealing off sections of Ste-Catherine Street.
Outside Concordia’s Hall Building, about 80 counter-demonstrators, including Jewish Montrealers, Quebec nationalists and students from both Concordia and McGill, rallied in support of Israel before marching east toward McGill behind a billboard truck streaming images from the Oct. 7 massacre and other global atrocities.
At McGill University, which remained open but under restricted access, tensions escalated quickly. Several hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators pushed through security gates to occupy the main lawn, setting off smoke bombs and ignoring police orders to disperse.
Zorchinsky who visited McGill, said she saw “fireworks in the middle of campus” and “a bloody Israeli flag” being burned on the ground. “It was just unbelievable and the police did nothing,” she told The CJN.
When a Jewish student unfurled an Israeli flag nearby, she said, police confronted him. “They said, ‘You’re going to get arrested if you don’t leave now,’” she recalled. “Then a few other students got their Israeli flags out and police came to us. They said it’s an order, you must leave now. We’re not negotiating.” Officers then physically escorted them off campus.
She described the experience as “unbelievable,” adding, “in that moment I understood that things are much worse than before.”
A Quebec Superior Court judge had denied McGill’s request weeks earlier for an injunction to restrict campus protests, finding that while evidence of antisemitic incidents was “extremely troubling,” the proposed order would not prevent future harm and could infringe on free expression.
McGill said it had “enhanced campus security measures” and that “academic activities will proceed as planned.”
Students such as Drew Sylver, who attends Concordia, said those promises rang hollow. “Statements are great, but action is what’s needed,” he told The CJN on Oct. 6. “Without visible consequences, the scene just repeats.”
Mississauga: Jewish vigil ends in confrontation
At the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), Jewish students gathered for a small vigil to commemorate victims of the Oct. 7 massacre. Hillel Ontario and StandWithUs Canada said the group was surrounded by demonstrators and escorted out a back door by security, calling it “a disgrace that, on the anniversary of the worst mass murder of Jews since the Shoah, Jewish students had to be escorted out a back door to protect them from an angry mob.”
The organizations described the event as “a moral failure and an institutional disgrace,” urging UTM to “immediately and unequivocally condemn this hateful mob and take action to hold those responsible accountable.”
The CJN reached out to the University of Toronto Mississauga for comment but did not receive a reply.
Toronto: anthem in Arabic on Oct. 7 prompts outrage
In Toronto, controversy erupted at Earl Haig Secondary School, where the morning broadcast of O Canada was played in Arabic. In an email statement, a Grade 12 student at Earl Haig told The CJN the anthem was followed by an announcement recognizing Islamic Heritage Month, and that the principal’s later message urging kindness made no mention of Jews, Israel or the Oct. 7 anniversary.
“Many students and parents felt this was incredibly insensitive,” the student wrote in an email statement. “Our administration has continued to ignore Jewish and Israeli voices—this being yet another example.”
StandWithUs Canada said the decision “begs questions at the very least about the school’s sensitivities, and at worst, about an intentional desire to isolate and discriminate against Jewish students.” The group described the timing—on the day marking “the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust”—as “a coincidence too uncanny to ignore.”
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra criticized the move on X, writing that he was “disappointed that I would have to direct school boards [to] demonstrate appropriate respect for our National Anthem by ensuring that it is played only in its official form.” He said the incident “underscores that school boards should be focused on creating safe learning environments for all students, never at the expense of one community over another.”
Legal push: Tafsik files complaints over Oct. 7 incidents
Tafsik, a Jewish civil-rights organization that describes itself as a grassroots network combatting antisemitism and hate crimes in Canada, responded to the day’s events by announcing a wave of legal complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
The filings name several institutions, including Earl Haig Secondary School, the University of Toronto, and multiple school boards and student unions.
“Yesterday was a brutal day for our community,” the organization said. “The horror of the October 7th massacre still hangs over us … but it wasn’t just the memory of that bloodshed that left us reeling. It was the sickening reality that once again, universities, schools, and unions chose to rally against us.”
Tafsik vowed to pursue accountability “with maximum intensity,” declaring that “Jewish safety and dignity are non-negotiable.” It also warned that individuals who incite hate or issue threats online would face “real, legal, expensive, and lasting consequences.”
Tafsik is on a rampage! Enough is enough!
Today our legal task force mobilized to go after institutions that mocked our community and celebrated October 7th massacre on campuses and schools across Ontario.
We have filed cases with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario against… pic.twitter.com/evTa0RVgBj
— Tafsik Organization (@Tafsikorg) October 8, 2025
‘Campus is unsafe’
By the end of the day, downtown Montreal remained under heavy police watch, and McGill’s lawns were littered with protest debris.
For Zorchinsky, who watched police push back Jewish students for displaying Israeli flags at McGill, the anniversary reinforced a grim pattern. “Campus is unsafe,” she said. “We all have to go there every single day, and the university itself should be changing that. Not us.”
She and others say they want more than symbolic gestures—they want consistent enforcement. “Without consequences, statements mean nothing,” Zorchinsky said.
With files from Joel Ceausu
The post Jewish students report intimidation and closures as Oct. 7 anniversary sparks campus unrest appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Loudest Anti-Israel Voices in US Congress Silent on Gaza Ceasefire, Hostage Deal
US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are seen before a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 21, 2024. Photo: Craig Hudson/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
Many of Israel’s most vocal critics in the US Congress have been silent following Wednesday night’s announcement that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire and hostage-release deal to end the war in Gaza.
As of Thursday afternoon, outspoken anti-Israel lawmakers such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), among others, have not released public statements regarding the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The silence is striking as each of these lawmakers has, for at least the past several months, consistently called for a ceasefire while accusing Israel of war crimes or “genocide” in Gaza.
Under the deal reached on Wednesday, Hamas will release the remaining Israeli hostages it kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, while Israel will withdraw troops in Gaza to a fixed line and free about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange. The agreement, brokered through indirect talks in Egypt with the help of Qatar, Turkey, and other mediators, is slated to take effect once Israel’s government formally ratifies it on Thursday night.
Observers have noted that many questions remain over Gaza’s future and reconstruction, especially regarding the plan’s call for Hamas to disarm and for Gaza to be totally demilitarized. However, leaders around the world cheered the development as a step toward peace.
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley, and Sanders have all erroneously accused Israel of committing a “genocide” in Gaza, claiming that the Jewish state has indiscriminately targeted civilian population centers and inflicted a famine in the beleaguered enclave. Van Hollen has also accused Israel of purposefully withholding food from Palestinian civilians and lying about well-documented claims that Hamas has stolen humanitarian aid. Sanders and Van Hollen have both spearheaded legislation to block offensive weapons transfers from the US to Israel.
However, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of the most strident opponents of Israel in Congress, acknowledged the ceasefire deal while simultaneously accusing Israel of “genocide” and calling for Israeli officials to be punished for “war crimes.”
“For the sake of humanity, let’s hope this will be a lasting and permanent ceasefire. While this is a hopeful step, we must demand accountability for every war crime committed during this genocide and continue to call for an end to the occupation,” Omar said in a statement.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the lone congressional Republican to accuse Israel of committing a genocide, also welcomed the news of the ceasefire deal.
“Thank you, President Trump!!” Greene wrote in response to the announcement.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel has been Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs K-12 Antisemitism Bill on Oct. 7 Anniversary
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks on Aug. 14, 2025. Photo: Mike Blake via Reuters Connect
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a bill into law which requires the state to establish a new Office for Civil Rights for monitoring antisemitism in public schools at a time of rising anti-Jewish hatred across the US.
“California is taking action to confront hate in all its forms,” Newsom said in a statement issued on Tuesday, the second anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel.
The Oct. 7 atrocities perpetrated by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists unleashed a global surge in antisemitic incidents, which have reached record levels in the US and other Western countries over the last two years.
“At a time when antisemitism and bigotry are rising nationwide and globally, these laws make clear: our schools must be places of learning, not hate,” Newsom added in his statement.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, the bill confronted Newsom, a Democrat rumored to be interested in running for US president in 2028, with a politically fraught decision, as it aims to limit the extent to which the state’s ideologically charged ethnic studies curricula may plant anti-Zionist viewpoints into the minds of the 5.8 million students educated in its public schools.
With Newsom’s signature, state officials may now proceed with establishing an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator, setting parameters within which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be equitably discussed, and potentially barring antisemitic materials from reaching the classroom. However, the measure has been lambasted by anti-Israel partisans and key constituents of the Democratic Party.
Pro-Hamas groups, left-wing nonprofits, and teachers unions have emerged to denounce the legislation, which passed the California legislature last month, even as it declined codification of the widely recognized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism — the exclusion of which constitutes a significant compromise for Jewish and pro-Israel activists. Additionally, it remains to be seen what the law’s ultimate effect on ethnic studies will be.
Amid these challenges and uncertainties, the bill’s supporters praised the news of Gavin’s signing as an indication of progress in the fight against antisemitism.
“StandWithUs is grateful that Gavin Newsom has signed AB 715, a bill to fight antisemitism in K-12 schools. We are proud to be part of the largest coalition of Jewish organizations ever to support a California state bill,” said StandWithUs, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group. “Much remains to be done if California is going to earn back the trust of Jewish students, families, and educators. Going forward, we will continue to use all tools at our disposal to fight antisemitism in K-12 public schools across the state.”
Maya Bronicki, education director of the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, added, “With the signing of this bill, California’s leaders publicly recognize that antisemitism is a grave problem in our schools and have taken an important step towards protecting Jewish students and other protected groups.”
Antisemitism in K-12 schools has increased every year of this decade, according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In 2023, antisemitic incidents in US public schools increased 135 percent, a figure which included a rise in vandalism and assault.
In September 2023 some of America’s most prominent Jewish and civil rights groups sued the Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) in California for concealing from the public its adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic and anti-Zionist themes. Then in February, the school district paused implementation of the program to settle the lawsuit.
One month later, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, StandWithUs, and the ADL filed a civil rights complaint accusing the Etiwanda School District in San Bernardino County, California, of doing nothing after a 12-year-old Jewish girl was assaulted, having been beaten with stick, on school grounds and teased with jokes about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In other California news, a court recently cleared the way for students and their parents to sue school districts across the state over the adoption of ethnic studies curricula containing antisemitic components which discredit Jewish self-determination in Israel while promoting harmful tropes.
The Algemeiner was notified of the decision by The Deborah Project, a legal nonprofit that filed the lawsuit which precipitated the ruling. In that case, the organization sued the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) over its using ethnic studies materials, which fostered aggressively discriminatory beliefs about Israel and the Jewish community, without offering parents the chance to review and approve of its contents.
The Superior Court of California, Alameda County ruled that the materials could be discriminatory and illegal to the extent that they violate civil rights laws, establishing what The Deborah Project described as a “landmark” precedent for future litigation.
“Jewish parents have been waging battle against antisemitic ‘instructional materials’ and instructors that expose their children to harm and hated,” Deborah Project legal director Lori Lowenthal Marcus said in a statement. “This is the first judicial decision addressing claims that the use of biased material violates the law. Now it’s clear: indoctrinating kids that Jews are evil oppressors discriminates against Jews; districts can be held to account and forced to stop doing it.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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EU, UN Push for Gaza Deal to Lead to Two-State Solution as France Irks Israel With ‘Day After’ Meeting
French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot at the Ministerial meeting on the implementation of the Middle East peace plan at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris, France, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
As world leaders hail Israel and Hamas’s agreement to a US-backed peace plan to end the war in Gaza, European leaders are pressing to make the ceasefire a steppingstone toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the newly signed deal, reaffirming France’s commitment to advancing peace, as Paris prepared to host a conference on Gaza’s postwar governance and reconstruction — a move Israeli leaders have denounced as the latest anti-Israel initiative for excluding them from the talks.
“Great hope for the hostages and their families, for the Palestinians in Gaza, and for the entire region,” Macron wrote in a post on X.
“This agreement must mark the end of the war and the beginning of a political solution based on the two-state solution,” the French leader said.
Just hours after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire deal, France brought together top diplomats from several Arab countries — Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — alongside European counterparts from Italy, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom, to discuss plans for Gaza’s postwar security, governance, and reconstruction.
Turkey’s foreign minister and European Union representatives also took part in the discussions.
The meeting “will work to gather concrete contributions to ensure that the second phase of [US President Donald Trump’s] plan is implemented, specifying the details of a collective commitment based on the main parameters for the ‘day after,’” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement before the gathering.
After the meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters that participants “discussed the major fields to which we intend to contribute: security, governance, reconstruction, and humanitarian aid.”
Without elaborating, he said countries had identified contributions that they were willing to handle in post-conflict Gaza.
“We will share them with the United States so that they can integrate them,” Barrot said.
However, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar criticized France’s new initiative, saying it unfolded behind Israel’s back and describing it as “unnecessary and harmful” to the peace process.
“The invitation of openly hostile governments toward Israel — such as the Sánchez government — to discuss Israel’s affairs is especially outrageous,” Saar wrote in a post on X, referring to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Just one day earlier, Spanish lawmakers had approved the enshrinement in law of an arms embargo on Israel that Sánchez introduced to end what he called “the genocide in Gaza.”
“The participants may of course discuss whatever topics they wish — but there will be no arrangements in Gaza formulated without Israel’s consent,” the top Israeli diplomat said.
“Today we make it clear: nothing about Israel without Israel!” Saar continued. “Israel will not agree to the internationalization of the conflict!”
While the US works with several Middle Eastern countries to advance peace in the region, Israeli and Jewish leaders have criticized Europe and the UN for pursuing initiatives that they say accomplish little in practice.
In an interview with Euronews on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized EU member states for their recent moves to recognize a Palestinian state, calling the bloc “absent” from peace-making efforts and “irrelevant.”
Macron on Thursday warned that expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank would pose an “existential threat” to a Palestinian state and undermine efforts for peace in the Middle East.
Announced overnight by Trump on his Truth Social account, the newly signed peace deal will secure the release of all remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, with Israel set to free nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave, and partially withdraw its forces.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the deal, emphasizing the EU’s readiness to assist with recovery and reconstruction, while continuing to advocate for a two-state solution as part of the peace process.
“Today’s opportunity should be seized. It’s the opportunity to forge a credible political path toward lasting peace and security. A path firmly anchored in the two-state solution,” the top EU official wrote in a post on X.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also welcomed the agreement, taking the opportunity to push for renewed efforts toward a lasting two-state solution.
“I urge all stakeholders to seize this momentous opportunity to establish a credible political path forward towards ending the occupation, recognizing the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, leading to a two-state solution to enable Israelis & Palestinians to live in peace & security,” Guterres posted on X.
Europe’s latest push for a two-state solution comes after several Western countries — including France, the UK, Australia, and Canada — recognized a Palestinian state at last month’s UN General Assembly, a move Israeli and US officials have criticized as rewarding terrorism.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also joined European leaders in their calls for a two-state solution, expressing hope that the Gaza deal “will serve as a prelude to achieving a sustainable political solution that ends the Israeli occupation and leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state along the June 4, 1967, borders.”
However, Netanyahu warned on Sunday that the creation of a Palestinian state would be “the ultimate reward for Hamas after doing the greatest massacre against the Jews since the Holocaust.”
Israeli officials have noted that they in effect gave the Palestinians a state in Gaza in 2005, when Israel completely withdrew all military and civilian personnel from the enclave. Hamas, an internationally designated Islamist terror group, was subsequently elected to power in parliamentary elections and then violently seized total control of Gaza in 2007.