Canadian Jews have had enough. With escalating violence against Jews and the paralysis of local and national governments in not addressing antisemitism, thousands of Canadian Jewish citizens are pulling up stakes and leaving the country.
Over the weekend, someone vandalized two locations of the Jewish-owned Kiva’s Bagel Bakery, including shooting out a display window. And last week, police charged a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who encouraged terrorism and “harm against members of the Israeli and Jewish communities” at protests in Toronto in 2024. The complaint alleged he is a member of Hamas.
"From renowned physicians and educators to entrepreneurs and community leaders, Canada is losing some of its most extraordinary citizens because they no longer feel welcome or safe in the place they called home," writes Casey Babb in The Free Press. British, French, Spanish, and Canadian Jewish communities have contacted officials at the State Department to explore the possibility of their members immigrating to America under refugee or other protected status avenues, according to I24.
That's an extraordinary and damning bit of news about Western governments' refusal, or inability, to address antisemitism in those countries.
Aliyah, the immigration of Jewish people from the diaspora to the State of Israel, increased 51% between 2023 and 2025, a record high. "An average of more than 10,000 Canadians are leaving the country every month, the highest level of emigration in Canada’s recorded history, according to the federal government," reports Babb.
It's not just the record number of violent, antisemitic attacks against Jews that is driving the exit from Canada. It's the seeming paralysis of both liberal and conservative governments in dealing with the crisis.
Michael Sachs from Vancouver decided to move to Oklahoma last year.
Speaking to [Babb] from his new home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Sachs, 45, said that antisemitism became so pervasive and normalized across Canada after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, that leaving went from implausible to inevitable.
But it wasn’t just the antisemitism. It was the sense that no one in power appeared genuinely interested in it or committed to actually addressing it. “Between the inaction of the province and the new federal government, we knew nothing would change,” Sachs said. “In fact, we’ve seen from afar that their inaction has actually made things worse.”
Tulsa Tomorrow, an organization that has been working since 2017 to attract Jewish families to Oklahoma’s most populous city, said that it has been contacted by roughly 600 Jewish Canadian households since December. Those households include about 2,000 people in all.
Babb writes, "And while most of the antisemitic incidents in Canada and elsewhere fall below the threshold of terrorism, there remains a deep sense of unease within the country’s Jewish community due to the quieter forms of hatred and bigotry that pervade daily life: shootings of Jewish institutions; vandalism of Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and synagogues; and assaults, acts of intimidation, and various other hate crimes."
Related: Germany's Insane Terrorist-Coddling Led Directly to Berlin Attack
“I didn’t leave Canada because of a single incident that happened to me,” Alex Fish, a marketing executive, told Babb. “I left because I read the trajectory early and acted on it, and everything I’ve watched happen… has confirmed rather than challenged that decision. Canada is past the point of no return.”
Going forward, Canadian leaders—officials and lawmakers to provincial politicians, mayors, police chiefs, university presidents, corporate executives, and community organizers—should treat this crisis not as merely a Jewish problem that needs to be managed but as a national tragedy that demands an urgent and effective response.
The Jews who are leaving Canada or wondering if they should aren’t simply one community among many making a lifestyle choice. They are a warning sign. What those who are giving up on Canada, with their packed bags and passports, is something that no serious country can afford to ignore.
Donald Trump's crackdown on campus antisemitism has had a big effect on antisemitism in the broader United States. Being intolerant of intolerance is the key. Once the government shows its strength in combatting hate, the people who are targets of that hate feel more protected. It doesn't prevent people from hating Jews or anyone else. It simply gives American Jews a sign that the government and the people of the U.S. have their backs.
That can make all the difference in the world to those who want to leave their home country because their own governments won't stand up for them.
