2 more Toronto-area synagogues hit with gunfire on Shabbat, raising alarm among local Jews
A different synagogue was struck on Purim, five days before
Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation was hit with gunfire shortly before midnight Friday. No injuries were reported. Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images
(JTA) — Two more Toronto synagogues were hit with gunfire on Shabbat, making three struck since last week.
A shooter fired through the glass doors of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto, a Modern Orthodox synagogue in the Thornhill neighborhood, at about 11:45 p.m. Friday. Two maintenance workers were still cleaning up from a Shabbat dinner.
Just 30 minutes later, a shooter approached the Orthodox Shaarei Shomayim congregation in North York, about 6 miles south, and fired multiple rounds at the entrance. In both cases, only the buildings were damaged, and no injuries were reported.
Toronto Police Service, led by the gun and gang task force and hate crime unit, are investigating whether the two incidents are connected. As the investigation continues, TPS said it is maintaining an increased police presence around Jewish neighborhoods, synagogues and community institutions.
The shootings come as Jewish security officials warn of possible threats to Jewish institutions connected to the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, whose agents have planned and staged attacks on Jewish sites around the world for decades.
They also follow a third shooting at a Toronto-area synagogue last week. A Toronto synagogue was hit with gunfire on March 2 less than two hours after a Purim event there concluded, while the community’s rabbi was still inside. No injuries were reported.
“This is a violent act of intimidation and part of a pattern of emboldened antisemitism that has no place in Toronto,” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said in a pre-recorded video statement Saturday morning. “It must be stopped.”
This week’s string of gunfire attacks is the latest iteration of attacks on Jewish institutions across Canada. In 2024, two Jewish girls’ schools in Montreal were shot one week apart.
“This threat is real,” said Sara Lefton, chief development officer of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, which sent a note Friday night. “If three synagogue attacks in one week doesn’t prove that this is a very very real and live threat, I’m not sure what everyone is waiting for.”
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