16.7% of Canadian hate crimes in 2025 targeted Jews, 1% of country, per state data

In 2021, 492 anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in Canada, or about 56% of all religion-based hate crimes (886) and about 14.7% of all hate crimes (3,355).

By Dave Gordon, JNS

In 2025, Jews were targets of 788 hate crimes in Canada—70.7% of the 1,115 such attacks based on religion, according to newly released data from the national Canadian statistical office.

“We remain among the most targeted minority groups in Canada,” Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, senior director of policy and advocacy at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS.

There have been instances where Jews “have not had their complaints taken seriously or not dealt with appropriately,” Kirzner-Roberts said.

“We need to continue to encourage community members to report,” she told JNS. “Obviously, we cannot allow hate criminals to act with impunity.”

Noah Shack, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the advocacy arm of the Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA, told JNS that “unless these incidents are reported, we’re missing a crucial step to ensure that every time a hate crime is perpetrated, the perpetrator is held to account.”

Statistics Canada, a state agency, released new data on Wednesday. The country recorded 4,708 hate crimes last year, meaning that Jews were targets of 16.7% of all hate crimes in Canada.

Some 1% of Canadians are Jewish.

Pat Johnson, founder of the charity Upstanders Canada Antiracism Society, told JNS that the country’s data reflects a “crisis.”

“We are not taking this crisis seriously,” he said.

In 2021, 492 anti-Jewish hate crimes were reported in Canada, or about 56% of all religion-based hate crimes (886) and about 14.7% of all hate crimes (3,355).

The next largest religious group to be targeted was Muslims, and the 142 anti-Muslim hate crimes were 16% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 4% of all hate crimes.

In 2022, Jews were targets of 527 hate crimes, which was about 69% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 14.6% of all hate crimes.

In 2023, the year in which Hamas led the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, anti-Jewish hate crimes surged about 82%—to 959 incidents, which was 71% of all religion-based hate crimes and about 20% of all hate crimes.

Hate crimes targeting Muslims dropped by about 23% from 2021 to 2022, and then rose by 102% in 2023, when the 220 anti-Muslim incidents represented about 16% of religion-based hate crimes and about 5% of all hate crimes.

In 2021, Muslims represented about 4.9% of Canadians, per official national data.

Hate crimes targeting Jews dropped slightly, by 2%, from 2023 to 2024, when the 943 anti-Jewish incidents were about 69% of religion-based hate crimes and about 19% of all hate crimes.

From 2023 to 2024, anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 5%, before dropping 11% in 2025.

Between 2021 and 2024, anti-Jewish hate crimes rose by about 92%.

Johnson, of Upstanders, told JNS that many see Jew-hatred as “a disordered political commentary and not racist behavior, because we hear very often that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”

“A lot of people look at some of the things that are happening today and put it down to ‘anti-Zionism,’ which they see as a political statement even though if it turns violent, it is obviously a statement of a very disordered nature,” he said.

The difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism “is irrelevant to the Jew with the boot to their head,” he told JNS.

Kirzner-Roberts, of Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS that “we are continuing to see a level of hate crime aimed at Jews that is dramatically higher than anything that we experienced before Oct. 7, 2023.”

Michael Teper, president of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, a charity, told JNS the police data is “hardly surprising.”

“My reaction is we have to keep fighting even harder,” he said. “The gloves are off, and we are informing the police about every crime that comes to our attention, and we’re demanding results.”

“We’re now seeing the police cracking down and issuing serious terrorist offenses,” he told JNS.

But the reported statistics are “the tip of the iceberg,” according to Teper, who said that it can take a long time for police to respond, and many don’t want to wait around to report a hate crime.

“Most people don’t have that degree of dogged determination,” he told JNS. “This is from personal experience.”