A Statement from the Reform Rabbis of Canada and the Reform Jewish Community of Canada on the Firebombing of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal

This morning, Canadians awoke to the news that another Jewish institution had been attacked. Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal, a historic Reform synagogue and spiritual home to generations of Jews, was targeted in what has been reported as a firebombing.

We are grateful that, at this time, no injuries have been reported. But we must be clear: an attack on a synagogue is an attack on the Jewish people. It is an attack on religious freedom. It is an attack on the promise of Canada itself.

This was not an isolated incident. It follows months and years of escalating violence, threats, vandalism, intimidation, and antisemitic hatred directed at Jewish Canadians and Jewish institutions across this country. Jewish schools have been shot at. Synagogues have been vandalized and firebombed. Jewish-owned businesses have been targeted. Jewish students have been harassed and excluded. Jewish families have been forced to ask whether it is safe to send their children to school, attend services, wear a kippah, display a mezuzah, or be visibly Jewish in public.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney stood in a Toronto synagogue and said plainly that “Canada’s civic compact is failing Jewish Canadians.” He added that “if that covenant fails for one of our communities, it fails us all.”

We agree.

But today, after yet another attack on a Jewish house of worship, we must say with equal clarity: acknowledging that Canada has failed its Jewish citizens must be the beginning of action, not the substitute for it.

The Prime Minister also quoted Elie Wiesel’s teaching that “the opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference.” Those words must now be heard as a warning. Antisemitism in Canada has metastasized because too many people have looked away. Too many leaders have offered sympathy without enforcement. Too many institutions have treated anti-Jewish hatred as a matter for dialogue when it has become a matter of public safety. Too many Canadians have grown accustomed to Jewish fear.

We refuse to accept a Canada in which synagogues require barricades, Jewish schools require guards, and Jewish children are taught to hide who they are.

As Reform rabbis and Reform Jewish communities across Canada, we raise our voices in grief, anger, and moral urgency. We do so as Jews, and we do so as Canadians who love this country and believe in its highest ideals.

We call on the Prime Minister, the Government of Canada, provincial and municipal leaders, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, educators, business leaders, civil society organizations, and all Canadians of conscience to act now.

We call for the full enforcement of existing laws against hate, intimidation, incitement, harassment, and violence.

We call for a coordinated national approach to protecting Jewish institutions and holding perpetrators accountable.

We call for every level of government to confront radicalization and extremism, including the ideologies and networks that encourage violence against Jews.

We call for a serious review of public funding to ensure that no government dollars support organizations, programs, or institutions that promote hatred against Jews or any other vulnerable community.

We call on schools, universities, unions, professional associations, cultural institutions, and public bodies to make clear that antisemitism, including antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism, will not be normalized, excused, or tolerated.

And we call on our fellow Canadians to wake up.

Wake up to the fear Jewish families are carrying.

Wake up to the silence that has allowed this hatred to grow.

Wake up to the reality that what begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

Canada’s promise is that people of every faith, background, language, and identity can live openly and safely as themselves. That promise is being broken. Not only in speeches. Not only in statistics. It is being broken in shattered glass, scorched doors, police tape, security briefings, and children asking whether their synagogue is safe.

A synagogue is a house of prayer. It is a place of memory, learning, mourning, celebration, and hope. To attack a synagogue is to attack the sacred space where a community gathers to affirm life.

We stand in solidarity with Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, the clergy, leadership, staff, and members of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom. We stand with the Montreal Jewish community. We stand with every Jewish Canadian who is exhausted by fear and by the indifference that too often follows it.

Canada’s covenant with its Jewish citizens can still be repaired. But repair requires more than statements. It requires protection. It requires enforcement. It requires accountability. It requires moral courage from leaders and citizens alike.

The time for study without action has passed.

The time for condolences without consequences has passed.

The time for treating antisemitic violence as inevitable has passed.

We ask our leaders, and we ask our neighbours: do not wait for the next synagogue to be attacked before deciding that Jewish safety in Canada matters.

It matters now.

It matters because Jews are Canadians.

It matters because Canada is ours too.