What Counts as Antisemitism?

Jewish Canadians face the challenge of confronting, and defining, hate

- BY JOHN LORINC

MOST SUNDAY mornings since October 7, 2023, Joel Sacke, an eighty-eight-year-old retired accountant, has turned up for what he calls a “very positive” gathering in northwest Toronto, to show his support for Israel. There’s singing and dancing, and Sacke, born in South Africa, likes to bring his Israeli flag. The neighbourhood is heavily Jewish.

On one such Sunday, several pro-Palestinian counter protesters drive by. A young woman leans out of a passenger window and grabs Sacke’s flag. A video of the incident, published by The Canadian Jewish News, shows several of the pro-Israel demonstrators, including Sacke, giving chase, then surrounding the car, striking it, and attempting to open its doors. When the back passenger exits, Sacke can be seen jabbing at her with the flagpole. “She opens the car door, punches me in the head, throws me down,” he says, of the passenger. “Next thing I know, people on our side lift me up, drag me to the sidewalk, and sit me down.” His leg is bleeding. An ambulance arrives, then a police cruiser. “I’m strapped down, lying in the ambulance, wondering: What the hell has happened?” According to CJN, the young woman was arrested and charged with assault and theft (for the flag), ultimately pleading guilty to mischief earlier this year.

Now meet Clare, in her early thirties, who works in a social service agency, has lived in Israel, attends synagogue, and participates in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. (She, like some of the other sources interviewed for this story, asked that her real name not be published.) Being Jewish, she explains, is “a huge part of my spiritual and emotional life.” She also believes antisemitism is the wrong thing to focus on in this time. “I feel like it actually detracts from the death and destruction and violence in Gaza.” On this point, Clare feels a lot of sympathy for the majority Muslim community her agency serves.