Braving ‘smelly’ protests, 55K walk in Toronto

Sara Lefton, the chief development officer at the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, estimates that 6,000 more people — a total of 56,000 — marched at this year’s Walk with Israel compared to last year’s.

“We are strong, we’re united and we will keep standing up for our community,” Lefton, who is also executive director of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto, told JNS of the event, which the United Jewish Appeal organized. “We need others to stand with us,” she added. “This is not just a Jewish issue. This is a Canadian issue. We need to stand up for Israel.”

Lefton told JNS that the UJA is grateful to the Jewish community and its “many allies” who joined the walk.

Salman Sima, a former Iranian political prisoner who lives in Toronto, was one of those allies. He told JNS that he joined some 200 Iranians at the walk.

Sima also held a sign stating that he stands with Yaron Lischinsky, one of the two Israeli embassy employees whom a gunman killed as they left an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week.

“We marched for our right to exist, for Zionism and for the triumph of good over evil,” Amir Epstein, co-founder and executive director of Tafsik, told JNS. (He said that some 1,200 people from Tafsik joined the walk, including Iranians, Hindus, Christians and Yazidis.)

The 2.2-mile walk began at Temple Sinai Congregation of Toronto, a Reform community located in a heavily Jewish area, and ended at the 27-acre Sherman Campus, which includes the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre.

Kevin Vuong, a former federal parliamentarian, stated that “the tactical decision to force peaceful UJA Walk participants to walk through a gauntlet of pro-Hamas intimidation, harassment and smoke bombs was, at best, a naive mistake that must be reviewed.”

He said the walk “was a much-needed breath of fresh, peace-loving, positive air.”

Talia Klein Leighton, president of Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, said that she experienced the smoke bombs.

“The pro-Hamas masked protestors and their accomplices, including the Neturei Karta, were well-orchestrated and coordinated,” she said. “Toward no other demographic, except the Jews, would this be tolerated, protected and justified by the establishment.”

“The fact that I had to shelter my children in a phalanx of people to protect them from the smoke bombs and vitriol of this hate mob is telling enough,” she said.

Some attendees told JNS that the police didn’t do enough to keep pro-Israel walkers safe. JNS counted about 200 anti-Israel protesters, many of them waving Palestinian flags.

Matthew Taub, a Toronto-based Israel advocate, told JNS that it was “shameful” that the police gave protesters space within the event next to attendees, “like they were the lead float in a parade.”

“Here we are being ridiculed and shamed, as we walk through this with our families, with our children,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to walk through a group of people shaming us for being born Jewish.”

“I found it disgusting that we are truly seen as second-class citizens,” he added.

Danny Edell, who owns a construction and renovation company in Toronto, said it was “profoundly troubling that our children had to walk past crowds of masked protesters shouting hate-filled chants that called for the destruction of Israel, right here in Toronto in 2025.”

“Even more disturbing was the sight of Toronto police walking in front of these masked, pro-Hamas demonstrators as they infiltrated the Walk for Israel,” he said. “I fear for the future of the Jewish community in Toronto.”

Tamara Gottlieb, president of the Jewish Educators and Families Association of Canada, observed that “most Canadians don’t understand the precipitous decline in security for the Jewish community that has taken place in Canada in the past two years.”

She noted that the protesters chanted “free Palestine,” the same phrase that the gunman who allegedly killed the two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington reportedly told police as he was arrested.

“We know exactly what ‘free, free Palestine’ means,” Gottlieb said. “It now comes with bullets.”

“It’s a sign of a sick society,” Daphna Pollak, who volunteers with Canadians for Israel, said, “when there’s such a level of hate that a segment of society needs to be protected with this level of police presence.”

Mamann, of the Toronto Zionist Council, said that the anti-Israel protesters were sufficiently far away from those walking in support of Israel, although the things that they shouted were “distasteful,” “untrue” and “provocative.”

Leighton, of Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, told JNS that despite the protests, the walk was “an amazing experience for all of us.”