When I was 7 years old, a group of boys on a Toronto playground swiped the kippa off my head and called me a kike. For decades I did not think about that afternoon. I never thought twice about my safety as a Jew in Toronto.
Then, in January 2024, I was sitting in my car at the entrance to my own neighbourhood and a police officer told me to turn around and go home for my own safety. The memory of that playground came back to me in an instant. I thought, “What’s going on – the Jew is being shoved back into the ghetto?!”
Three years ago, on Oct. 7, Hamas murdered more than 1,200 people and dragged 251 into Gaza as hostages. I wrote a book about it with a simple title: The Wake Up Call. The question I keep asking, as the third anniversary passes, is whether we have woken up to the canary in the coal mine – that being the antisemitism that is eroding Canadian civilization.
I am a third-generation Canadian. My grandfather came over with the name Elishevitz and woke up to children with the name of Ellis. We have fit into the Canadian dream. This is my home. I have lived here my entire life. I am a Canadian Jew.
Since Oct. 7, I have watched the newest Jewish libel evolve, accusing Israel of genocide scribbled on the safety barriers bordering our park. I have watched a masked young woman shout “baby killer” at a neighbour on our street. I changed my Uber profile name from Israel to ZZ. I have watched faculty associations, school boards and unions adopt the language of the people who cheered the massacre of Jews, and I have watched too many of our leaders look away.
None of this is abstract to me. Our son Eitan left Canada to serve in the Israel Defence Forces as a lone soldier. He told me he could not be the Jewish person I raised him to be if he did not sign up. My words: “How can I help?” He was activated on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023.
When my youngest son hung an Israeli flag in the window of his university residence, I heard myself tell him to lay low. He put the flag up anyway. I am proud of him for being proud of who he is, and his small act of defiance strengthened my own resolve. I will not hide my Star of David. I will not remove the kippa from my head. I will not be embarrassed to say my name.
Hatred is not unique to the Jewish people, but history shows that the downfall of civilization follows closely behind the persecution of Jews.
That is why I do not see the last three years as a Jewish problem alone. What we have watched on campuses and in our streets is a symptom of something deeper: a breakdown of values. For a generation, secular society has told young people that there is no fixed moral compass, only competing narratives. Into that vacuum has come a movement that is very sure of itself. It tells a young person, lost and looking for meaning, exactly who the villain is. Too often, the villain is the Jew.
The radicalization of young people did not begin on Oct. 8, 2023. It was built patiently, in classrooms, in online spaces and in institutions that should have known better. When the young kids today lead our communities, cities, provinces and country 20 years from now, what will they believe? This is the real threat of subversive antisemitism. It is the Jew-hate that hides in the shadows of our private and public institutions that will be the death of the country if we do not act now.
I am often asked what I want people to do. Staying and holding our ground is part of it, but it is not enough.
First, we must name hate as hate. A society that cannot define hateful rhetoric cannot stop it, and a chant calling for jihad on a Canadian street is not a political opinion about a foreign conflict. It is meant to force out the Jews of this country.
Second, we must take the fight for young minds seriously. The only long-term solution is changing how the next generation comes to see its world. That means parents, teachers and community leaders giving young people something to believe in, not only something to be against. It means making room for students to say what frightens them and to be heard, rather than lecturing them.
Third, we must stop being surprised. The honest admission I make in my book is that the denials and betrayals of the past three years caught me off guard. They should not catch our children off guard.
We must use all legal and political leverage to hold accountable those who are responsible. This means launching lawsuits, rallying against and for certain political leaders, and raising our voices in all available ways. We do not want to look back in our rearview mirror of life wondering what we could have, should have, would have done differently.
Israel Ellis is the author of The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism and Moving Through Walls: The Four Foundations to Living Your Best Life. He hosts the podcast The Unfiltered View and lives in Toronto.
