A support rally for Israel (credit: Washington Hebrew Congregation)

This Oct. 7 marks the one year anniversary of the massacre during which members of Hamas, a terrorist group as per the Canadian government, broke through the border between Gaza and Israel and murdered 1200 men, women and children in their homes and at a music festival. Hundreds of hostages were taken into the Gaza Strip, where many still remain to this day. 

In the wake of the bloody conflict that has followed the attack, antisemitism has been rising both abroad and here in Canada. According to the 2023 annual report from B’nai Brith, there were 2791 incidents of antisemitism in Canada last year, showing a 109.1% increase from 2022. 

“The impact of this tumultuous year, specifically the period following the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks in Israel, cannot be accurately conveyed by mere statistics,” wrote Richard Robertson, the organization’s Director of Research and Advocacy. “It is not undue to suggest that not since the Holocaust has Canada’s Jewish community faced such a legitimate threat to its survival.”

The memory of the attack is still fresh in the minds of many in Canada’s Jewish community. Ahuva Knight, who was born in Israel and now lives in Ontario, was visiting her family in Northern Israel for the Jewish High Holidays when the massacre began. She recounts the confusion they felt in the early hours of Oct. 7.

A kibbutz in the Gaza Envelope on Oct. 7.
(Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Kobi Gideon)

“I think we were in shock, like it’s impossible. Things like this don’t happen, not in Israel.”

“I woke up at 6:00 a.m. because my mom has an iPad and in Israel, every time there’s alerts, it pings just to tell you it’s like, oh sirens here, sirens there,” she says. 

She recalls reading alerts of unusually heavy rocket fire from Gaza, the first clue that something big was happening. As the morning went on, she says she and her family turned on the news.

“People are starting to report that a base has been taken over and it’s like, it can’t be,” she recalls. “And people are saying that they actually have terrorists across the border—it can’t be, like the military is there, the military will be right there.” 

 “I think for the first hour, truthfully, we all thought that all the reports we’re seeing—because they didn’t have images of the terrorists, people were sending messages to the news centre and they’re saying things that they’re seeing—like, no it can’t be… I think we were in shock, like it’s impossible. Things like this don’t happen, not in Israel.”  

The following day, Hezbollah, another designated terrorist group operating out of Lebanon, began launching rockets into the north, where Knight was staying with her parents. She then had to decide whether to stay in Israel, or return to Canada. 

“I was upset leaving my family over there, even though my kids wanted me back here,” she says. “I’m kind of torn, I mean I’m leaving my family there, in who knows what kind of danger, right? And I’m heading to my kids, it’s like, okay where do I go?” 

For Canadian citizens in Israel, leaving was no easy task. Most commercial flights to and from Israel had been cancelled. 

“So the Canadian government set up a website where you can actually tell them that you’re there,” Knight says. “So I enrolled in it. I put my name and that’s it. Didn’t hear anything, didn’t hear anything.”  

After waiting in vain for the Canadian government to notify her of an available flight, she eventually managed to book a commercial flight from Tel Aviv to New York with El Al, the Israeli airline. 

“I get to…the airport, and there’s a lady with a Canadian flag, and I said to her that I’ve been trying to get information, and she said they have empty flights” 

Knight says the lady then told her that there was a plane, operated by the Canadian military, and if she got on that flight, then she would be able to fly back to Canada that same day. She decided to cancel her flight with El Al. 

“I’m thinking, okay, I’m gonna be in Canada today. I got on the flight,” she says. 

Update: Two additional @CanadianForces flights departed Tel Aviv today and carried over 300 passengers to Athens.

Since October 12, @CanadianForces flights have carried over 1,000 passengers out of Israel.

Flights will continue for as long as required. pic.twitter.com/gTLkz6a453

— Bill Blair (@BillBlair) October 15, 2023

(Canadians boarding a flight from Tel Aviv to Athens. Credit: X.com/BillBlair)

The plane was nearly empty, she says, with maybe 50 people on board. The plane took them to Greece, where she says there were no connecting flights that day, so she stayed in a hotel and bought a ticket on the next flight home.

“The only good thing I’m going to say is that once we landed in Canada, they kind of did the immigration fairly fast,” she says. “But the planes were empty… I don’t understand the disconnect between gathering people or having a list of people trying to get out, and then getting them out.”  

“I definitely know that the Canadian government does not have the Jewish people’s backs, or the Israelis’.”

In the year since that day, Knight says that she has not felt safe or supported as a Jewish, Israeli-Canadian.  

 “(I’m thinking) that I should probably go back to Israel, because there’s nothing, there’s no accountability on the Canadian government”  

Knight says she considers the government responsible for allowing antisemitism to increase to the extent that it has. 

“That’s my biggest issue that makes me feel like–even though I live here and I do appreciate a lot of good things that happen in Canada–I definitely know that the Canadian government does not have the Jewish people’s backs, or the Israelis’”. 

“I actually put a security camera outside my house, out of fear,” she admits. “At the beginning, when I came back, other than customers who know I’m Jewish and Israeli, I have other customers who ask ‘hey, where’s your name from?’ It’s hard to change it, but I feel like I have a target.” 

“I even said to (my daughter), ‘don’t wear a Star of David, don’t wave your flag’ out of fear for my own kids that some lunatic will attack them.”

Others in Canada share her fears, too. In preparation for the Oct. 7 anniversary, police across Ontario, including London Police, have pledged to provide additional protection for local synagogues and mosques as tensions rise. 

Jewish London also released a statement on the anniversary, highlighting the resilience of their community in the face of hate. 

“Today, we come together as a community to remember those we have lost, stand in unwavering solidarity with the families of the hostages, our brothers and sisters in Israel, and honor the resilience of the Jewish people. We pay tribute to the survivors of these unimaginable atrocities and to all those affected by what stands as the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.”