On Canada Day weekend, the Pride of Israel synagogue in Toronto was attacked and several windows were smashed.

When congregants at Toronto’s Pride of Israel Synagogue arrived for Sunday services on the morning of June 30, in the middle of the Canada Day long weekend, they were horrified to find several windows broken, holes in the stained glass windows, and stones strewn across the bimah.

The congregation stood there for a moment, confused and disappointed. But that did not stop them from holding their service at 9 a.m.

“We’re going to keep going,” Carl Zeliger, vice president of the congregation, told the CJN by phone as he heard the sound of shattering glass beneath his feet. “Our service went on today. All (the vandal) accomplished was maybe a five-minute delay in the start of our service. We’re going to keep going. That’s not going to help them.”

The building’s caretaker, located near the intersection of Steeles Avenue and Bathurst Street, was the first to notice the damage when he arrived at 8 a.m. Police were called at 8:30 a.m. A team of forensic technicians spent several hours collecting evidence before giving the municipality the green light to begin cleanup.

The attack is believed to have occurred earlier in the morning. A resident told Zeliger that they were awakened by a loud bang around 2:30 a.m. According to Zeliger, that neighbor looked out the window and saw a helmeted motorcyclist speeding away. The neighbor then called the police, but they did not call until later that morning when community members called.

The CJN reached out to Toronto Police, who declined to comment as they were still in the process of drafting and approving their official press release.

The damage to the building, Zeliger says, “is pretty significant.” The attacker threw two large, heavy rocks through the windows above the main entrance. They also threw a few smaller rocks that pierced (but did not shatter) the stained glass windows leading to the sanctuary. Those rocks landed on the bimah.

In addition, the attacker apparently tried to break a glass door with another stone, but the door held.

By Sunday afternoon, community members had already contacted professionals to repair the glass and immediately contacted their insurance company to have their safety records reviewed.

The origins of the Pride of Israel Synagogue date back to 1905, when the Pride of Israel Sick Benefit Society was founded in a house on Chestnut Street in downtown Toronto. The grassroots organization sent doctors and money to congregants who were sick or in need. The congregation eventually moved to its current building in North York in 1969.

Zeliger believes his name was partly responsible for making the terrorist group a target in the long period after October 7.

“If you consider this to be anything other than anti-Semitism, then I think you have not recognized the reality of today,” he says. “My parents were Holocaust survivors. That hurts. I love my parents, but I’m glad they don’t have to experience this anymore.”

With this incident, Pride of Israel is the latest in a wave of anti-Semitic attacks that has swept across Canada. Jewish buildings in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and many other cities are repeatedly set on fire, shot at and vandalized.

What surprised Zeliger most was that this happened on the eve of Canada Day.

“We Canadians should be happy about who we are and where we are. But that includes people of all races, colours, religions, etc. That this happened on a Canada Day weekend is truly an insult to everyone. It basically means that our values ​​mean nothing. I would really like the silent majority to come to terms with that. We have to do better. We can make Canada a better country.”