From Yom Hashoah to Today’s Antisemitism | CAEF Bulletin, Apr 17, 2026

CAEF
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The 27^th day of Nissan on the Hebrew Calendar, which in 2026 corresponds to April 14, 2026, is Yom HaZikaron liHaShoah viHagvurah: The Day of Remembrance of the Martyrs and Hereoes of the Holocaust and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

On this day, we honour the memory of six million Jews of Europe and North Africa enslaved and murdered by the National Socialist Regime of Germany. We honour the memory of entire communities whose existence was wiped from the pages of history.

We honour the memory of Mordechai Anielewicz, leader of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (“ZOB”), the Jewish Resistance Organization whose fighters, with only the most rudimentary weapons, stood against the might of the National Socialist regime from April 16, 2023 through May 16, 1943, and would not let the National Socialists choose the time and place of their deaths.

We also honour the memory of Twenty Jews Murdered last week by Iranian Regime Terror

Read article in The Times of Israel by Amy Spiro, April 13, 2026 on those killed by Iranian missile attacks on Israel. Read The Times of Israel stories of all soldiers and civilians killed since Hamas invasion on October 7, 2023.

Bathurst & Sheppard in Toronto

Community Meeting Draws 400 Concerned Torontonians

On April 13^th, a community meeting was held at the Lodzer Centre Congregation for residents of Bathurst St and Sheppard Ave area who fear for their safety on account of the continuing anti-Israel protests. To begin the meeting, candles for Yom Hashoah were lit by Lodzer Centre Congregation Rabbi Eli Courante, who also recited kaddish, Simon Wolle, President of B’nai Brith Canada, Rich Robertson, Director of Research at B’nai Brith, Toronto City Concillor James Pasternak, criminal law counsel Jody Berkes, and CAEF President Michael Teper.

Following the candle lighting, Michael Teper moderated the meeting which included an overview of the situation by representatives from B’nai Brith Canada and City Councillor James Pasternak. The purpose of the meeting, for which over 400 people pre-registered, was to present information on legal strategies to respond to the hateful protests against Israel at the intersection, which is located at the geographic centre of Toronto’s Jewish community. The presence of the Jew haters has been a weekly challenge since but a month after October 7, 2023 when they appeared to counter the pro-Israel crowd that called for release of the hostages from Gaza.

The Jews stopped organized meetings when the last hostage was released. The Israel haters continued to appear at the corner every Sunday with their amplification equipment, Palestinian flags, monstrous antisemitic posters, and poisonous rhetoric. Then they took to marching down the streets of this Jewish neighborhood, in front of apartment buildings, synagogues, Jewish retirement homes, and Jewish schools.

Two weeks ago, the Toronto Police Service and Toronto EMS authorities brought to the intersection 4 ambulances, a bomb squad, a mounted unit, and the Public Order Unit, consisting of dozens of officers on bicycles and on foot.

These protests are not a minor nuisance or irritant; they are a clear and present danger to the physical and emotional safety of the residents of the neighbourhood. While the TPS has now intervened to physically block the protesters’ access to the side streets lined with single family homes, they have done nothing to protect the security of residents living in the apartment buildings situated on Sheppard Avenue and on Bathurst Street. Apartment buildings are personal residences just as much as single family homes on side streets, and in CAEF’s view, it is class discrimination for the Toronto Police Service to provide them with any lesser degree of peace and security.

CAEF continues to identify residents who would be willing to appear as complainants or witnesses in potential civil or criminal litigation proceedings. Please reach out to rmichaelteper@gmail.com

Legal Update

Sentencing of Nicholas Vincent AMOR on April 16, 2026 at Windsor ON

Nicholas Vincent AMOR was sentenced to imprisonment of two years less a day in the Ontario Court of Justice sitting at Windsor for wilful incitement of hatred against an identifiable group (i.e., Jewish people) in a manner likely to breach the peace, and for possession of weapons dangerous to the public peace.

CAEF is very grateful for the work of a member of our Board of Directors, Paula Glick, who travelled to Windsor to personally deliver a Community Impact Statement on behalf of the Jewish community. Also appearing in court to deliver Community Impact Statements were the Windsor Jewish Federation, B’nai Brith Canada, the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism, and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Describing Amor’s conduct which spanned two years of online hateful posts as “vile" and “disgusting” and “antithetical to the values of this country”, Justice Mikolaj Bazylko handed down a sentence of two years less a day, which was the sentence proposed in a joint Crown and defence submission to the court. Three years' probation will follow and include terms barring AMOR from accessing or posting on social media, attending protests or approaching Jewish community institutions. A prohibition from possessing firearms for 10 years was also imposed.

Read CBC news story about the sentencing hearing.

Carlyle, Saskatchewan: New charges for willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group (Jewish people) have been filed in Saskatchewan Provincial Court against Travis PATRON, 35, of Redvers, SK. The Attorney General of Saskatchewan has consented to the prosecution. These charges result from complaints filed by CAEF, B’nai Brith and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center regarding antisemitic rants posted on a website maintained by PATRON.

Read CBC news story about this Canadian antisemite.

Mona AYESH convicted of Theft Under $5,000, issued a Suspended Sentence and 12 months probation.

On April 13, 2026, regular Bathurst/Sheppard protester Mona AYESH was convicted of theft under $5,000 in the Ontario Court of Justice and issued a suspended sentence, which includes a criminal record. Earlier, AYESH was found guilty of stealing an Israeli flag from members of the Jewish community who gathered at the intersection to draw attention to the plight of the hostages. Having stolen the flag, AYESH was found by the court to have dragged it along the wet and muddy ground while crossing Bathurst Street, and then burying the flag in the snow. In passing sentence and rejecting the defence position calling for an absolute discharge, the court accepted as an aggravating factor that the offence was motivated by hate, bias or prejudice.

CAEF President Michael Teper delivered a Community Impact Statement in court. We thank Jaime Kirzner-Roberts of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for also appearing to deliver a Community Impact Statement.

Your Honour: My name is Michael Teper, and I am presenting this Community Impact Statement in my capacity as President of the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAFF). CAFF is a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to is focused on combatting antisemitism in Canada through education research and advocacy. Members of Toronto's Jewish community assembled on the north-west corner of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue since the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, during which over 1,200 innocent people were murdered and over 400 people were taken hostages by Hamas terrorists. They assembled at that corner, which is situated in the geographic center of Toronto's Jewish community, to emotionally support each other through the ordeal of the aftermath of the October 7 atrocities and the continuing captivity of the hostages, and to publicly call for the unconditional and immediate release of the hostages and to show our support for relatives and friends in the State of Israel. This series of over 100 consecutive weekly grassroots rallies continued without interruption in all seasons and in all weathers. Sometimes, the rallies attracted only a few dozen, sometimes several hundred. Eventually, these rallies attracted counter-protesters on the north-cast corner of this intersection. One of them was the defendant.] On February 9, 2025 the defendant chose to express her displeasure with the Jewish community's message by stealing a flag of the State of Israel that was the property of one of the rally organizers, Guidy Mamann, and stomping on it. For Toronto's Jewish community, this is far more than a petty theft. It's a brazen act of intimidation and provocative aggression against us as we lawfully exercise our Charter-guaranteed rights to free expression and free assembly. For our community, this act was not about the defendant's rights to express her opinions, it was about her willful interference with our rights to safely express our own. On Sundays, tensions are often elevated at the comer of Bathurst and Sheppard. The dozens of police cars stationed in the parking lot of the medical building north of the Bathurst and Sheppard plaza testify to the potential for violence breaking out at any moment. This act of theft and destruction only added to the tension, and to the fear felt by members of our community that a brawl could break out at any time. As Canadian citizens of Jewish and/or Israeli background, we have the right to demonstrate our identity and our viewpoints in public, just as much as the defendant. We have the right to be Zionist and proudly support the State of Israel, in public. The defendant, by her act of theft, sought to silence us and deprive us of these rights. That cannot be allowed to stand. Thank you for listening to the voice of the Toronto's Jewish community in this matter.

Annual Report on the State of Violence Against Jews in 2025

Tel Aviv University publishes an annual report on violence against Jews in the diaspora, and the 2025 report based on data, shows that attacks have increased substantially and annually since October 7, 2023.

Read the 2025 report.

Read here: https://cftau.ca/tel-aviv-universitys-annual-antisemitism-report-in-the-shadow-of-the-war-in-gaza-cases-of-severe-violence-against-jews-broke-records-in-2025/

Amanda Yehudit Writes about Then and Now

We tend to think that the Holocaust began with violence. It didn’t. It began long before that, with words. With the slow shaping of a narrative in which Jews were no longer seen as humans or individuals, but as abstractions. As a problem. As something less than fully human.

That’s how it starts. And for those paying attention, it's clear that this isn’t just history, it’s a pattern we’re living inside of again.

Today, this anti-Jewish narrative primarily shows up in two forms. The first is obvious (or it ought to be, anyway...) : outright falsehoods and modern blood libels about Israel, most of them echoing tropes that are lifted directly from nazi propaganda. These are the ones that educated, thoughtful people can see and reject (although the stupid among us still traffic in them freely).

Read more

Recommended Viewing

Award winning documenary Among Neighbors produced and directed by Yoav Potash is a Must See. This film, 10 years in the making, captures incredible sights and sounds of a small town in Poland where jews returned after the war, and their descendants more recently. What was the treatment of Jews by their neighbors? What was the secret that one small village had held for over 70 years? What and who tells the story?

Why has this film been banned in Poland?

Watch the trailer. Help boost the film, organize viewings, talk about it, write about it.

Watch Loay Alshareef speaking about Hezbollah’s takeover of Lebanon.

Watch Mark Kondratiuk, a Russian (not Jewish) figure skating champion, dedicated his performance to the people of Israel. (Mark titled it “To taunt the antisemites”. It is set to Hava Nagila.

Watch video of Palestinian woman explaining why the West is obsessed about “Palestine.”

CAEF Sends Greetings to our Yezidi Friends

The Yezidi New Year, on April 1, known as Çarşema Sor or Red Wednesday, is one of the most significant religious holidays for the Yezidi community, symbolizing renewal, light, and the beginning of creation according to Yazidi belief.

CAEF has a history of supporting this vulnerable minority that endured a long history of pogroms in Iraq, massacres by ISIS and displacement. We believe that Canada could and should do much more to unite Yezidi families that are here with relatives who remain behind, still in limbo, still persecuted.

We wish our all members of the Yezidi community good health, strength, joy, prosperity

Sersal We Pîroz Be!

Fighting Back Means Eating Out—Supporting Old Avenue Restaurant

After several attacks that included shooting into this lovely Jewish owned restaurant in mid-town Toronto, Tafik’s Executive Director, Amir Epstein, called on everyone to book dinner and enjoy a Caucuses inspired meal. The response was overwhelming and three evenings were sold out. We acknowledge the spontaneous and generous response initiated by Tafsik and celebrate the wonderful owner and staff of Old Avenue.

Read below about the Toronto Police Service arresting an alleged attacker.

L-R Donna Holbrook, Sei Carbone, Steven Stein, Barbara Grossman, Anne Dychtenberg, Andria Spindel

Advocacy and Action

Read Letter from Richard Sherman to the NY Times regarding bias of Ghada Aboufattah in reporting on "rubble in Gaza," April 13, 2026.

Read Letter from Larry Shapiro, Calgary to The Guardian Editor re: article by Emma Graham-Harrison, calling Marwan Barghouti, the jailed murdering terrorist, the 'Palestine Mandela,' and claiming he has been assaulted in Israeli prison, April 15, 2026.

Community Events

The Western Sephardic Atlantic

Part II: Jewish Privileges in the Atlantic World

Register Now

Register here: https://jewishheritagealliance.com/register-for-part-ii-of-the-western-sephardic-atlantic-renewal-influence-and-legacy/

Facts at a Glance - April 19th at 3:00 PM ET

Register here, watch the webinar and ask your questions during Q&A.

Join us for an exclusive live briefing with Sharren Haskell, who serves as Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Knesset. In this powerful one-hour session, she will share firsthand insight into:

The current realities facing Israel
The global rise in antisemitism
What’s unfolding behind the headlines
Why it matters to all who value freedom
Why it matters for all who value freedom and human rights

A Zoom access link will be sent to all registered participants closer to the event date.

Voices Unbroken: The Power of Women

Register Here

DON’T Miss … Live in Toronto

Sahar TV and Talia Yosef onstage to share their dynamic approach to misinformation, antizionist rhetoric, and attacks on the Jewish community. Learn how to express your perspective with confidence and strength.

Register Now