Our Enemies are Bold, Our Friends Bolder | CAEF Bulletin – July 31, 2026

CAEF
2 days ago
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Attack on Beloved Toronto Bakeries

Once again, Jewish-owned businesses in Toronto have been attacked in the night. Kiva’s Bakery and Appetizer, a beloved Toronto culinary institution, was attacked at two locations on the same night of July 27, 2026. Toronto Police have theorized that the suspects first attacked the location on Steeles Ave. West near Bathurst St., then drove south on Bathurst St. to St. Clair Ave., where they fired on the St. Clair Avenue location. At press time, the suspects remain at large and unidentified.

Toronto politicians, Jewish community leaders, and prominent citizens have rallied around the business, encouraging members of the public to patronize Kiva’s Bakery and Appetizer.

CAEF President Michael Teper visits Kiva’s Bathurst/Steeles location for breakfast, orders a Mushroom and Havarti cheese omelette with a cappuccino and Perrier, and is ready to face the adventures of the day.

Read more in the Times of Israel about the attack on Kiva’s Bakery in Toronto, a “suspected hate crime”, July 27, 2026.

Remembering the Roma Genocide

The Romani Holocaust, also known as the Porajmos, was the genocide of European Roma and Sinti people during World War II. Beginning in 1933, Nazi Germany systematically persecuted the European Roma, Sinti and other peoples through forcible internment and compulsory sterilization. (Wikipedia)

Gina Csanyi-Robah, co-founder and director of the Canadian Romani Alliance and a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Canadian Delegation, urges that Canadian curriculum include the history of the Romani genocide. The Romani and Sinti people were cast as “enemies of the State” by the Nazis and experienced the same fate as the Jews, with 250,000–500,000 being murdered. In 2011, Poland declared August 2 as the official day of Commemoration of the Romani Genocide.

Let’s All Remember.

Legal Update

1. Adam Lee Wasserman acquitted of criminal harassment and assault charges.

On July 30, 2026, Adam Lee Wasserman, who works for independent journalist Caryma Sa’d as a videographer, was acquitted following a five-day trial in the Ontario Court of Justice sitting at Brampton on charges of criminal harassment and assault, for which he was arrested while covering the 2025 Walk with Israel. Wasserman frequently covers and reports on the anti-Israel and antisemitic protesters, for which he is repeatedly targeted by them. Caryma S’ad offers some additional commentary here.

With Adam Lee Wasserman being acquitted of these charges, his credibility will presumably be bolstered in the event he is called as a witness in trials of various protesters facing charges of assaulting and/or harassing him.

2. CAEF files Freedom of Information requests with Toronto Police Service and York Regional Police in connection with the Project Olive Branch Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA) complaint.

In March 2025, constables Farhan Ali and Haroon Siddiqui of the Toronto Police Service appeared in a Toronto Police Service video, in which they made inappropriate comments about the October 7, 2023 massacres and the motives of anti-Israel protesters. CAEF President Michael Teper filed a complaint with the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency, a provincial body with jurisdiction under the Community Safety and Policing Act to investigate complaints of misconduct by individual officers. LECA assigned the complaint to the York Regional Police, which completed its report in early June 2026. Since then, the report has been with the office of Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, who has refused to release it to the public or comment on it.

Constable Farhan Ali currently faces criminal charges on an unrelated matter.

3. CAEF files Freedom of Information request with Exhibition Place Board of Governors re investigation of “Jew free” posting at 2026 Muslim Association of Canada conference.

At the May 2026 conference of the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) held at the Enercare Centre of Exhibition Place, journalist Melanie Bennet of Juno News filmed a video posting at one of the breakout sessions that expressed the desire for a “Jew free” community.

Exhibition Place CEO Don Boyle wrote to CAEF President Michael Teper that Exhibition Place staff have completed their investigation into the incident and have attempted several times, unsuccessfully, to contact the Muslim Association of Canada to convey their findings and required action steps for remediation. Exhibition Place staff have refused to release their investigative findings or their correspondence with MAC.

CAEF believes the public has a right to know when a major event held on Toronto public property violates the city’s policy on anti-discrimination. We therefore filed an information request for these records under the Municipal Freedom of Information Act.

4. Hamilton Police arrest suspect in Jewish Federation of Hamilton office vandalism.

On July 30, 2026, Hamilton, Ontario Police announced the arrest of an unnamed 51-year-old man for mischief under $5,000 in relation to an alleged vandalism incident at the offices of the Jewish Federation of Hamilton. Further details forthcoming.

Read the brief article in the Hamilton Spectator on the charge laid after the targeting of the Jewish Federation of Hamilton, July 30, 2026.

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights — Still Not Doing the Right Thing

Allies and Friends

Lana Melman, attorney and 20-year entertainment veteran, is the CEO of Liberate Art and the author of the award-winning book Artists Under Fire: The BDS War Against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel. She has been interviewing Hollywood celebrities who support Israel and provides these stories to CAEF. Read her interview with Jerry O’Connell.

Actor Jerry O’Connell has quietly become one of Hollywood’s most outspoken allies of the Jewish community, and it didn’t start with a script. It started with a promise.

His godfather, “Uncle Bill” Silverstein, was a WWII POW who told a young O’Connell about the terror of “being discovered as a Jew” in a German prison camp. That story never left him. “I couldn’t believe he had to live with that kind of terror,” O’Connell says. “As a child, I promised myself, ‘if I ever see antisemitism like that again, I’m gonna do something about it.’”

That promise stayed dormant for decades — until his manager, Michael Rotenberg, whose parents survived the Holocaust, asked O’Connell to join him at a screening of October 7: Bearing Witness to the Massacre, the IDF’s raw-footage compilation of the Hamas attack. O’Connell said no at first. He didn’t want to see it. He went anyway, so Rotenberg wouldn’t go alone — and walked out reliving his childhood fear. “I am witnessing a Holocaust,” he thought. “That childhood feeling. That anger. That promise.”

So, he started showing up by making a speech for an ADL event and adding his name to group statements defending Israel. The blowback came fast with “biting personal attacks” on social media; but so did something else. At LAX recently, waiting to board a flight with his daughter, two teenagers stopped him for a selfie. As he sat back down, one of them turned around: “Thank you for your ADL speech. It really meant a lot.” O’Connell still can’t quite explain why it hit him so hard.

Then there's the mystery he genuinely wants solved. Two of his old shows — My Secret Identity and Sliders — were minor, low-budget, barely-a-blip productions in the U.S. But somehow, "I'm never recognized for it by anyone, unless you are Israeli. And then I get recognized for it all the time." He has no idea why. He's hoping someone reading this does. (View the video clip and like, comment, share)

Family is where the advocacy gets personal. He and wife Rebecca Romijn are raising twin daughters in Calabasas, and O'Connell has taken them to the Simon Wiesenthal Center since they were young. He won't shield them from the antisemitism that circulates online: "You can't shield them — they need to learn to navigate it and defend themselves."

He's also, for the first time, weighing a college's post-October-7th response as a factor in where his daughters apply — and he's proud that his own alma mater, NYU, settled a federal lawsuit by explicitly naming anti-Zionism as harassment in its policies and creating a Center for the Study of Antisemitism. (Check out this Insta post for my article quotes & great photos)

Despite all of it — the ADL speeches, the Wiesenthal Center visits, a life steeped in Jewish friendships, seders, and challah every weekend — O'Connell ends the interview with a confession: "I have got to go to Israel. It's crazy that I haven't been there." I told him they'd welcome him like a son.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post Magazine. You can read the entire interview here: Jerry O’Connell on antisemitism, Israel, and a childhood promise

Somaliland Opens its Embassy in Jerusalem!

Read the story by Nosson Shulman in Israel365News about the friendship between Israel and Somaliland, July 27, 2026.

Watch here as Somaliland students demand Israeli history be taught in the curriculum.

Allies for a Strong Canada Reports on Threats to Jews

See the post from Allies for a Strong Canada, then check out their website and sign up.

Indigenous Embassy Jerusalem Presents Allies Linda Price

Watch Millie Salt, Indigenous woman from Prescott, Arizona, praying for Israel.

Support the Campaign for Canada to Designate Chinese Heritage Month

United Against Hate Canada is working with Canada’s Chinese community, asking Parliament to adopt a Canadian Chinese Heritage Month. The suggestion is that February be dedicated as the month.

You can sign the petition by using the link or QR code attached to this email. When you add your name, you will receive an email from the House of Commons to verify it was actually you who signed. You will have to click that link. The process takes about a minute or two.

The petition will be tabled this autumn.

Thank you for your gesture of solidarity with Canada's Chinese community.

Sign petition e-7523 to designate February as Canadian Chinese Heritage Month.

The Report Is Out — J7 Task Force on Antisemitism Confirms a Global Crisis

The J7, the Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, was formed in response to increasing rates of antisemitism around the world. It is comprised of organizations representing the largest Jewish communities in the Diaspora, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. Their report finds that 2025 was the deadliest in 30 years. While decreases in incidents were documented from the previous year, incidents were significantly up from pre-October 7 numbers. The report documents more than 23,000 antisemitic incidents across J7 countries in 2025, comprising over 90% of the Jewish diaspora.

“The J7 Annual Report makes clear that antisemitism is no longer a temporary surge, but a sustained global crisis affecting Jewish communities across all seven countries. The J7 was created because no community can confront this threat alone. Governments, institutions, and technology companies must act with urgency, enforce the law, strengthen security, and ensure that Jews can live openly and safely,” said William C. Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Read the release from the ADL — the J7 Report finds 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks in the Diaspora in over 30 years.

Read the Report in full (PDF).

Top takes for Canada (see the full report linked above):

Extremists are targeting Jews in every aspect of society, from Jewish camps to allies who stand against hate. Activists across the country are working to push Jewish presence out of public life — from unsuccessful attempts to exclude Jews from participating in Pride celebrations, to the deliberate targeting, harassment, and violence against our community members at schools, summer camps, community centres, workplaces and in unions.
Concepts like Anti-Palestinian Racism (APR) are instrumentalized to convince institutional partners that Zionism is inherently racist, and therefore illegitimate. APR and anti-Zionism are dangerous ideologies that threaten the safety and well-being of the Jewish community.
Canada’s institutions, including the immigration system and justice system, are being manipulated, exploited, and weaponized by foreign extremist networks and hostile regimes to undermine our way of life. What has resulted is the erosion of faith in enforcement of the law, immigration policies, and the justice system across the board as hate-motivated criminals are being released on bail with no regard for community security, or charges being dropped altogether.

Toronto City Councillor James Pasternak, along with Councillor Mike Colle, brought forward a petition signed by over 4,000 local residents addressing a public safety crisis regarding ongoing anti-Israel hate-filled protests in the Bathurst–Sheppard neighbourhood. They indicated that the next step would be to present it to the Toronto Police Service Board at an upcoming meeting.

Hear Councillor Pasternak’s remarks.

Holocaust Distortion Is Jew Hatred

Holocaust distortion is not outright denial. It’s subtler, more sophisticated, and because of that, far more dangerous.

It accepts that the Holocaust happened, but disputes the facts in ways designed to minimize, excuse, or normalize the genocide of six million Jewish people. Unlike outright denial, distortion is designed to sound reasonable. It stirs just enough doubt in uninformed minds to make people question the severity, the scale, and the validity of one of the most documented atrocities in human history.

And it’s working. The subtlety of Holocaust distortion is precisely what makes it so effective — it normalizes antisemitism without triggering recognition. The March 2026 U.S. Antisemitism Landscape Survey found that nearly 1 in 3 Americans does not consider Holocaust questioning to be antisemitic, up from 1 in 5 in June 2023. Attitudes are shifting, and awareness is the first line of defence.

Read the full article published by Blue Square Alliance.

Recommended Viewing

Watch Rhoda Anderson for Kanada House on Jewish indigeneity.

Watch the interview of Dr. Charles Small by Fleur Hassan at the CUFI conference, on proof of Qatar’s Muslim Brotherhood influence across the US.

Watch Loay Shareef explain the facts of Jewish displacement from Arab lands.

See the post — Toronto Jewish business twice targeted.

Read the article by Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith in Aish.com about Boy George’s courage standing up for Israel, proclaimed in his new song, July 28, 2026. This article includes the lyrics and his singing of “We Will Dance Again.”

Big Lies Challenged by the Israel Truth Network

Israel Truth Network is a project of Israel365News and publishes an item every day. The ITN shows the lie, debunks it with facts in very clear, concise form. This would be perfect information for fact sheets, posters, slides. Below is an example of facts, unmasking the lie of “settler violence.”

Subscribe and get facts to counter lies.

Lies About Settler Violence Unmasked

Most of the data on “settler violence” is false. The primary database used to document “settler violence” — maintained by the UN — counts tourist visits, legal government infrastructure work, traffic accidents, and Jews ascending the Temple Mount as violent incidents. Nearly 20% of incidents in the database are simple “trespassing” complaints. (Regavim)

It also counts Muslim terrorists killed or wounded during attacks they initiated as victims of “settler violence.” Terrorists neutralized mid-attack are logged as casualties of attacks by “Jewish settlers.” (Tablet Magazine) (Regavim)

Even B’Tselem — a radical Left-wing NGO funded by European governments — recorded that every Muslim killed by Israeli civilians in Judea and Samaria in 2022 died in an attack they or another Palestinian initiated. (Regavim)

According to official Israel Police data, 73% of complaints filed against Jewish settlers are false. Yet Jewish suspects are actually indicted at 3x the rate of Arab suspects for equivalent nationalist offenses. The justice system isn’t coddling Jewish offenders — if anything, it’s under-prosecuting Arab ones. (Regavim)

Between 2014–2024, Israeli police opened 4,748 cases of Arab nationalist violence vs. 1,356 cases of Jewish nationalist violence — more than 3.5x as many. And Arab violence is systematically undercounted, since many cases are handled by the IDF and never enter civilian crime statistics. (Regavim)

From 2019–2022 alone, IDF figures recorded nearly 25,000 stone-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks by Arabs against Jews, not counting shootings or explosives. First responders documented another 17,396 attacks between 2022 and mid-2024, with reports showing that Muslim violence increased since October 7th. (Rescuers Without Borders) (Regavim)

False reports of “settler violence” are commonplace. In 2024, for example, a Palestinian youth claimed Jewish students hung him from a tree, burned his legs, and tear-gassed him. The story went global. But hospital records showed no burns, video showed his eyes wide open, and under interrogation he admitted he came to throw stones at Jews. (Honenu)

Around 20 organizations operating in Judea and Samaria — funded by the EU, European governments, the UN, and international foundations — help fuel the false “settler violence” narrative. (Regavim)

Advocacy and Action

In May, B’nai Brith Canada warned that Palestine Action Canada (PAC) was publishing target maps that named Canadian businesses and institutions, circulating operational guidance for criminal activity, and encouraging activists to form secret cells, damage property, evade law enforcement, and destroy evidence. We alerted law enforcement, national security agencies, and international partners, and called on Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree to list Palestine Action as a terrorist entity.

Weeks later, the group claimed responsibility for targeting Dishon Limited in Concord, Ontario, announcing that it was “taking matters into [its] own hands” and urging supporters to “throw a wrench in the cogs” of what it calls the “Zionist war machine.”

PAC is part of a larger international network. Members of this network have already committed serious violence in the United Kingdom, where Palestine Action is proscribed as a terrorist organization. Now, this same network is organizing recurring workshops to actively recruit and train supporters in Canada, all while insisting that “now is the time to escalate.”

B’nai Brith is once again calling on Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree to follow the United Kingdom’s lead and immediately designate PAC as a terrorist entity.

Sign the petition — e-7598.

Honest Reporting Canada: PM Carney stated Canada should not comment on the human rights failings of other countries, then exhibits a double standard applied to Israel.

“Carney’s foreign policy reveals troubling selective attacks, where authoritarian Islamist regimes are treated as partners to be courted, while Israel is treated as a target to be lectured ad nauseum.”

Read the article and sign the petition.

UN Watch has documented misuse of funds and terror links of UNRWA.

“UNRWA presents itself as a humanitarian agency. In reality, it has become deeply entangled with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups — using your tax dollars to empower extremism. UN Watch has now released the UNRWA Terror Network, an investigative platform that exposes and maps the systemic infiltration of hundreds of UNRWA employees directly engaged in terrorism, or in promoting terrorism.”

Explore the UNRWA Terror Network.

Read and sign the petition to defund and replace UNRWA.

Read Letter from Richard Sherman to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, on Mayor Mamdani’s Zionophobic policies that endanger Jews as evidenced by the stabbing of Moshe Grunhaus, July 24, 2026.

Read Letter from Richard Sherman, Florida, to Editor of the Los Angeles Times, regarding Jordan’s illegal occupation of Judea, Samaria and east Jerusalem after its invasion of Israel in 1948 and in violation of Article 80 of the UN Charter, July 26, 2026.

Read Letter from Larry Shapiro, Calgary, to Editor, NY Times, in response to an article by Thomas Friedman who blames Israel for the lack of peace with Palestinians, ignoring the foundational antisemitism taught to all Palestinian Arabs, July 28, 2026.

Read Letter from Ruth Abrams and friends, Toronto, to PM Mark Carney challenging his double standard approach to Israel — the obsessive fixation with the one country, stating he will arrest PM Netanyahu under ICC warrant, but neglecting the following tyrants and human rights abusers: Kim Jong Il? Vladimir Putin? Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud? The leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah? The current New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei of Iran? The Emir of Qatar? July 28, 2026.

Read Letter from Richard Sherman, Florida, to the Editor, NY Times, about the Zionophobia that is the real threat to peace, not “settler violence”, July 29, 2026.

Community Events

Learn more and get your tickets for CAEF’s 2026 Advocate Award of Excellence, honouring Brian Lee Crowley, Tuesday October 27, 2026.

Hamilton: Temple Anshe Sholom is hosting a free half-day conference. CAEF is a proud sponsor.

Bringing together leading scholars from Canada and abroad, the conference will explore Jewish history, Israel, antisemitism, and the remarkable resilience of the Jewish people. Attend the entire day or choose only those presentations that are of particular interest to you — you are sure to leave with new knowledge, fresh perspectives, and a deeper appreciation of our shared heritage.

Register here