Toronto Jews were the most targeted demographic of hate crimes in 2019, according to police data cited by B'nai Brith Canada.
"We are sad to see that the trends we've been warning of for some time now are coming to fruition, and the alarming rise of antisemitism is continuing to expand," said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada.
In total, the Jewish-targeted crimes was of 44 out of 139, or 32% of the city's reported hate-related incidents.
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) recorded the incidents targeting Israelis separately from those targeting Jews. Hate crimes targeting Israelis made up five out of the total incidents, but with Israelis and multi-bias cases included, the total number of incidents involving antisemitism in Toronto adds up to about 57, or 41% of the city's hate crimes.
Meanwhile, in the nearby York region, the percentage of Jew-related hate crime incidents was very similar, amounting to 30% of total incidents. These numbers are consistent with what was recently reported in B'nai Brith Canada's 2019 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which found an alarming 62.8 per cent increase in the number of incidents in Ontario compared to the previous year.
The League for Human Rights, part of B’nai Brith Canada, recorded 2,207 antisemitic incidents in its 2019 Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. That’s an 8% increase over the 2,041 incidents from the previous year and an average of more than six per day.
In Toronto the number of Jewish citizens amounts to just under 190,000 out of a total population of around 6,140,000 people according to the Jewish Federation of Canada.
Despite Jews making up only a fraction of the population in these municipalities, this is not the first time that they've been the disproportionate victims of antisemitic incidents. The year 2020 marks the fourth year that Jews have been the most targeted minority, according to government data.
In Toronto, the second and third most targeted minorities were the LGBTQ and Muslim communities, respectively. The LGBTQ community was on the receiving of 19% of the city's hate crimes, while the Muslim was the target of 11%. In the York region, the second and third most targeted communities were the black and LGBTQ communities, respectively.
Marcy Oster/JTA contributed to this article.