By Howie Silbiger, Editor in Chief
It is 2025 and the rot runs deep. You can feel it in the air, a moral decline so steep that open hate has become just another part of the city’s background noise. The mobs chanting for the destruction of Israel in downtown Montreal are not hiding their intentions. They shout it proudly, confident that no one in power will stop them. And they are right. Our political leaders look away, our so-called community leaders look down, and the rest of society shrugs.
The warning signs have been impossible to miss. In the recent past, Congregation Beth Israel Beth Aaron in Côte Saint-Luc was surrounded by a Palestinian flag waving mob. Worshippers including families and elderly were trapped inside while protesters pounded drums and shouted them down. The police eventually formed a barrier, but there were no mass arrests, no deterrent. Just another “incident” filed away.
Around the same time, bullets tore into the front doors of Yeshiva Gedola and Talmud Torah overnight. Two schools targeted hours apart in a city where Jews are supposed to feel safe. A few days later, Yeshiva Gedola was shot again. Mayor of Montreal Valérie Plante condemned the attack and “all forms of hatred,” carefully avoiding naming Jew-hatred. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went further — he condemned the attack on the Jewish community and then, in the same breath, condemned Islamophobia, despite there being no link whatsoever between Islamophobia and the multiple attacks on Jewish schools and businesses.
Last Friday, a Jewish father walking in a public park, simply wearing a kippa, was attacked in broad daylight. The attacker was arrested and is being charged with assault, not a hate crime. He was not apprehended by police at the scene, it took them over an hour to respond to the call, it was Chaverim, a volunteer Jewish security group, who tracked him down. The police didn’t want to arrest the thug and it was Chaverim who convinced them that to do so. Even after the arrest, he wasn’t charged with a hate crime, but merely assault.
The violence has not been limited to schools or individuals. Beth Tikvah synagogue in Dollard was firebombed. The Spanish and Portuguese synagogue faced a mob of pro-Palestinian protesters. Chevra Kadisha synagogue and Shaare Zedek synagogue were both targeted by the same type of protests. Federation CJA was stormed by demonstrators. In response to the continued protests at Jewish institutions across the city, civilian lawyers Neil Oberman and Michael Hollander worked pro bono to secure injunctions banning demonstrations near those locations.
Even events that claim to celebrate “diversity” have joined the slide into bigotry. This year’s Montreal Gay Pride Parade banned Jewish groups from participating, reinstating them only after political pressure. When those groups did march, they were pelted with balloons filled with a disgusting liquid.
At Concordia University, Jewish students were assaulted, punched, shoved, and spat on during a so-called protest for the crime of holding an Israeli flag. Everyone saw the footage. No one saw the arrests. At kosher businesses, boycotts and intimidation became routine. Synagogues were vandalized. And yet, both our elected officials and many of the people who claim to represent us at “official” community tables had the same advice, stay calm, do not escalate, let the authorities handle it.
Let the authorities handle it? The authorities have been “handling” it by doing nothing. And while politicians hide behind vague statements and vote calculations, too many Jewish leaders have chosen appeasement over protection, preferring press conferences and interfaith luncheons to demanding real action. They have confused diplomacy with surrender. They have told us that keeping quiet is “smart strategy,” when in reality it is a slow motion surrender of our dignity and safety.
For years now, major Jewish institutions in Montreal have played the backroom game. Private meetings with ministers. Carefully worded letters. “Constructive dialogue” with elected officials. And always, the unspoken rule, do not say anything publicly that might embarrass or anger our political “friends.” They tell you it is “strategic,” that quiet lobbying is how you get results. But the truth is it is about access. It is about keeping their seats at the table, even if that table is set in a house that is burning down.
This moral rot, from City Hall to the National Assembly to our own boardrooms, is why hate has been allowed to take root and grow bold. Every time we accept harassment as part of the discourse, every time we choose quiet over confrontation, we send the same message, you can get away with it.
Enough. No more hollow condemnations, no more photo ops, no more leaders, political or communal, who mistake access for action. Every synagogue firebombed, every school shot at, every Jewish business threatened is not just an attack on property, it is an attack on our right to live freely in this city. If politicians will not enforce the law, and if our own community leaders will not defend us loudly and publicly, then they are complicit in the decay.
When the last Jewish family leaves Montreal, when the synagogues lock their doors, when kosher bakeries close, the mobs will cheer. The politicians will pretend to be shocked. And the Jewish leaders who traded public defense for private relationships will be remembered not as protectors, but as collaborators in the slow dismantling of Jewish life. They will have earned their place in history’s hall of shame. And no one will let them forget it.
Howie Silbiger is the editor of Montreal Jewish News and the host of The Howie Silbiger Show and Political Hitman on Truetalkradio and Israelnewstalk radio.
