Canada began feeling inhospitable to Moshe and Leah Appel, a Jewish Orthodox couple from Montreal, long before October 7.

But the outbreak of war on that day between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and the explosion of antisemitism it unleashed in Canada and beyond, “knocked down a couple of walls” that had been keeping the couple in Canada, Moshe Appel, a baker and father of three, told The Canadian Jewish News in a recent interview about his family’s aliyah, or immigration to Israel.

“That is the reality in Montreal, where if you are visibly Jewish, you’re not safe,” Moshe Appel told CJN in January following his move to Jerusalem the previous month. He cited multiple incidents of violence and intimidation against Jews, including at their synagogues and schools.

Whereas such concerns are not uncommon across North America and beyond, some Canadian Jews have begun to worry about the very viability of their community of some 400,000 people. They fear for its future amid growing hostility to Jews on the streets, antipathy in government toward Israel and bureaucratic regulation they say limits their ability to practice their faith.

A recent example of the regulation was the government’s introduction last year of new animal welfare-related limitations on kosher meat production, which prompted Jewish community activists this month to prepare a lawsuit focused on defending the practice.

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