What should have been a peaceful vacation turned into a nightmare of hate when a Jewish couple from Montreal were confronted with a Nazi salute and chilling cries of “Heil, heil, heil!” during a Palestinian rally in Halifax.
Dan Goldstein, 51, and his wife, Liat Lev-Ary, had just finished touring the Halifax Public Gardens on August 6 and were following their phone’s map to lunch. Instead, they were led straight into a seething anti-Israel protest.
At first it was the usual chants. Goldstein even fired back, reminding the crowd not to forget the Bibas children kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. But the mood shifted when one flag-draped protester strode toward them, raised his arm in a Nazi salute, and sneered “Heil” again and again before spitting out, “You f—ing pieces of s—.”
For Goldstein, wearing a cap with Hebrew lettering, the intent was crystal clear. “It was an endorsement of Hitler’s Final Solution,” he said. “Eighty years later and Jews are still being targeted with the same hate that exterminated my family.”
Even more disturbing was the police response. Two Halifax officers watched from across the street as the Nazi salute unfolded. When Goldstein begged them to intervene, he says they brushed him off asking how that could possibly be a hate crime. A third officer, Goldstein claims, turned on him, shouting, calling him a racist, and refusing to listen.
Shaken, the couple went to a police station themselves, filed a formal hate crime complaint, and handed over video evidence. While follow-up officers appeared to take it seriously, the damage was already done.
“This wasn’t about Israel or Gaza,” Goldstein said. “This was about open, blatant Jew-hatred on Canadian streets.”
Now, the question hangs heavy: how is it possible that in 2025, Jews in Halifax can be targeted with Nazi salutes while police stand by and do nothing?
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