Toronto synagogue attacked for 10th time since Oct. 7

Kehillat Shaarei Torah invested $160,000 in security after repeated attacks since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

By World Israel News Staff

A Toronto synagogue was vandalized on Tuesday evening, marking the 10th time that the Jewish house of worship has been targeted since the Hamas-led massacres on October 7 two years ago.

Security footage from Kehillat Shaarei Torah shows a masked suspect approaching the building, smashing several windows with a hammer, and then fleeing. Toronto Police Services (TPS) confirmed in a statement that its Hate Crimes Unit is investigating the incident.

Rabbi Joe Kanofsky told Canadian news outlet CBC that the attack had left the congregation uneasy.

“The community is a place where people come together as a faith community to thank God for the good life that we have and to pray for an even better world for everyone. This is obviously pretty far away from what we believe or what we hope happens around us,” Kanofsky said.

Quoting the Talmud, Kanofsky added that “‘Silence is acquiescence’ — if you don’t say anything, then people assume it doesn’t bother you, so the silence that comes from a lot of different levels is a clear message.”

Previous attacks saw windows smashed, signs on the synagogue lawn set on fire, and anti-Israel stickers posted on synagogue property.

Michael Gilmore, Kehillat Shaarei Torah’s executive director, told The Canadian Jewish News that many of the congregants believed the wave of attacks had stopped.

“The large majority of the community, including myself, had maybe incorrectly assumed that” the targeting of the synagogue had finally concluded.

“But that obviously is not the case,” he continued. “I think that [there] was just the feeling overall of ‘OK, we’ve been through this before, we know what to do. No one’s going to deter us from being proud Jews,’ but at the same time, we’re also kind of just tired of having to deal with it.”

Gilmore noted that the synagogue invested heavily in upgraded security — new fencing, additional cameras, and an overnight guard — at a cost of approximately $160,000.

The Canadian government is theoretically obligated to reimburse part of that amount through a community security grant, but the payment has yet to arrive due to bureaucratic delays.