Toronto Synagogue Is Damaged by Gunfire on Night of Jewish Holiday

Canada|Toronto Synagogue Is Damaged by Gunfire on Night of Jewish Holiday

A Toronto synagogue was damaged by gunfire on Monday night, the beginning of the Jewish holiday Purim, the police said.

Police officers responded to calls of gunfire at Temple Emanu-El in the North York neighborhood just before 11 p.m., Deputy Robert Johnson said on Tuesday during a news conference held by the Toronto Police Department.

No one was injured, but the building was damaged, Deputy Johnson said, although he did not detail the extent of the damage.

Several bullet casings were found near the temple’s front door, he added. In a statement on social media, Temple Emanu-El said 20 shots were fired toward the building.

A vehicle was reportedly seen leaving the area after the shots, but there is no description of any suspect, Deputy Johnson said. The department’s gun and gang task force is investigating the shooting along with the hate crime unit.

A Purim celebration at the temple finished about an hour before the shots were fired, Rabbi Debra Landsberg said in a statement. Rabbi Landsberg said the building’s lights were off but she and a small group were still on the property.

Purim celebrates the thwarting of a plot to exterminate the Jewish population in ancient Persia. Often celebrants dress in costume and eat hamantaschen.

The temple posted photos of its Purim festival, hours before the shooting, showing people in costume, trays of hamantaschen, and bounce houses.

“It is chilling that this happened just after our Purim evening celebration — a night filled with joy, laughter and community,” the temple’s leadership said in a statement. “To have that joy followed so quickly by violence and intimidation is deeply unsettling.”

Both Deputy Johnson and temple leadership said there would be increased security around the temple.

“Members of the Toronto Jewish community have been experiencing a deeply troubling rise in antisemitism,” Deputy Johnson said.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas carried out a terrorist attack in Israel that killed over a thousand people, there have been 309 arrests in Toronto and 858 charges brought related to hate crimes, Deputy Johnson said. He did not clarify if all the arrests and charges were for antisemitism.

The number of antisemitic incidents in the United States reported to the Anti-Defamation League almost tripled in the year after the Hamas attack on Israel, the civil rights organization said.

The surge has been reflected globally, with tens of thousands of anti-Jewish incidents reported, including cases of violence as well as verbal abuse. In December, at least 15 people were killed in a mass shooting on Bondi Beach in Sydney, where Jews had gathered on the first day of Hanukkah.

B’nai Brith of Canada Foundation, a civil rights organization, said antisemitism incidents reached records in the country in 2024, with 6,219 reports.