Toronto synagogue is hit for 10th time. The rabbi has thoughts
Early Tuesday, antisemitic vandals hit Kehillat Shaarei Torah, a synagogue in Toronto’s north end, for the 10th time in just over a year and a half.
Police officers responded to reports of smashed windows, finding four shattered panes. Rabbi Joe Kanofsky said the community is shaken but determined not to be silenced.
“It’s very important to acknowledge nobody in our synagogue was hurt. This took place off hours when the building was not occupied,” he said.
Kanofsky described how the synagogue had already taken steps to protect itself, installing a steel fence and locked gate last year after previous attacks. Federal funding through the Canada Community Security Program has helped the temple add barriers and a CCTV system.
He emphasized that the synagogue’s response will be to double down on positivity, prayer, and commitment to good, even in the face of repeated hostility.
The suspect — described as being in their late teens to early 20s, with a thin build, short dark hair, and wearing dark clothing — remains at large as the investigation continues.
News Release - Suspected Hate-Motivated Mischief to Religious Property Investigation, Bayview Avenue and Fifeshire Road area, Image Releasedhttps://t.co/2ziTtiqxVy pic.twitter.com/vJDOW2SD8g
— Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) November 4, 2025
Kanofsky spoke to Dave Gordon for National Post:
Q: What was your congregation’s reaction to this latest vandalism?
The sad reality is, we’ve been through this quite a number of times already in the last 18 months.
So while it’s been a quiet period over the last few months since we put up a fence, you know, I cannot say anyone including myself seemed as surprised as the first, second, third, or fourth time that the synagogue was vandalized.
Q: What kind of security precautions or defence mechanisms have been installed in incidents one through nine?
The main point in addition to improving our lighting and all the things that should go with security, we have a perimeter fence with a locked gate that we lock when we’re away from the building. You know, really something you don’t find on too many businesses or houses of worship or places of business around town.
You lock the front door at the end of the day and you hope that’s it. So that worked for us for a number of years until it didn’t, about April of 2024 when the first attacks took place.
We feel like we’ve done quite a bit. We’re not a hardened facility like an embassy abroad or anything like that, nor I think we should be expected to be. Since the attack on the synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2019, I believe, we’ve had private security on premises every time we have a worship service.
Now, I want to put a shout out to Toronto Police Service who, for the last two years, has been a very visible, and supportive, presence every day at our synagogue. And, as far as I know, every other synagogue and Jewish school and institution around town. In addition to that, we have hired a paid duty constable to come and be here during our busier seasons of worship. It is a little bit mind-boggling that this is what’s required for people to feel relatively safe attending a prayer service at their local congregation.
There was this terrible shooting in Pittsburgh where a number of people lost their lives on a Sabbath morning, and then there was something else in California. Every synagogue thinks we could be next. There was a hostage taking at a very small Jewish synagogue in Texas a couple of years ago.
Q: What do you think the long-term effects of this attack will be?
This is a drain and a distraction, which, of course, it’s meant to be. For how many years did how many millions of people have to take off how many millions of pairs of shoes at the airport just to get on a plane because of one guy?
That’s what these off-balance attacks are really meant to do. Thankfully, our attendance at the synagogue hasn’t declined. It’s actually improved. People have come out more to show their support, so that’s a good thing.
The long and the short is, we won’t be daunted. We, as our local community, have been through this before, and the Jewish people, we’ve been through some harassment over the years. So, it’s not going to stop us.
Q: Have any of your neighbours in an area, nearby residences, nearby businesses, nearby houses of worship, extended a hand of outreach or support?
Yes, very much so. A number of synagogues in our area, and across town, a few Christian-Jewish dialogue groups. Probably less in terms of our neighbouring houses of worship, but certainly from the Jewish community. A few from across Canada.
Actually, just on October 7th, we received a lovely, handwritten, long, heartfelt note from a Christian neighbour who passes us every day on the way to work. They saw the security go up, and extended the really warmest supportive, friendly feelings that you can ask for.
The silence from others is also a message.
Q: Is there a message for the Canadian public?
A number of perspectives on this. One is to say that, if someone is determined to do something, they will certainly do it.
So, you know, a fence and a lock and the motion detectors couldn’t stop this person from getting here. If we’re determined to do good things, perhaps nothing should stand in our way also. Those of us who are trying to bring peace in the world, trying to bring peace in the community, trying to bring more dialogue and understanding among people in Toronto…
Just like this person who came to do damage, you know, to do good, surely nothing can stand in our way.
Because for those of us who believe, and I do, that good is exponentially, if not infinitely, more powerful than bad, we should feel like we have the wind in our back, number one.
Number two, without over-dramatizing it, it can fairly be said, I think, at some point in history in our civil and western civilization, that the Jews are often the canary in the mine shaft.
We are an early warning system, and if these things are not addressed, if they’re not dealt with, they don’t get easier over time.
But again, for those of us who believe that good is really the overwhelming balance of power, we just have to lean into it and embrace it.
Q: What do you think it would take for the public to have more courage to fight antisemitism?
Whether we like it or not, the public looks to the leaders, and the leaders have to tell the story and have to say, “we will not tolerate it, we will not accept it, we will not stand for it.”
I have heard politicians over the last couple of years say things which to me ring like platitudes, where they say, “violence has no place in our society.” Violence has quite a big place, because violence is what people use to intimidate others and to harm and to disrupt.
So to say it has no place in our society is really inaccurate and misleading, because it has quite a great place.
What they should say is, “we will not tolerate, we will not stand for, we will not permit, and we will not rest until we stamp out as best as we can those forces in our society.”
When we stand together, when our leaders, religious and civic leaders, are together and united against hatred, not just antisemitism, but hatred of any minority group, of any small group within our society, it doesn’t stand a chance.
And when people are silent, people take that as acquiescence. It’s not a complicated equation.
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