Matan HazanovManaging Partner, Enigma Ventures · Founder | VC | Podcast Host | I can help you raise money

Toronto Jews Ask: Where Are Our Allies When We're Targeted?!

18 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:27

In this YouTube video, host Matan Hazanov engages in a candid conversation with a community speaker about recent anti‑Jewish harassment and demonstrations at the Bathurst and Sheppard intersection in Toronto. The dialogue highlights the community’s frustration over what they describe as a lack of political will and a "two‑tiered" approach to law enforcement that appears to tolerate anti‑Jewish actions while swiftly shutting down similar protests targeting other minorities. The speakers reference past political support and donations, questioning why elected officials and allies remain silent. They contrast the treatment of Jewish protesters with hypothetical scenarios involving Black, LGBTQ+, or white‑supremacist groups, arguing that those would be dispersed immediately. The conversation culminates in a direct appeal to civil society, elected representatives, and police to recognize and address the message that Jews are being told they are not welcome in Toronto.

Chapters

Why should we be intimidated? Why should you stay in Toronto?
Well, my position has always been quite clear. We came from all over the world to Toronto. We started businesses, we raised families, we bought homes, we built hospitals and cultural institutions. Why should we be intimidated? We're not going anywhere. We have a right to be here. And I tell people that, do not be intimidated. But at the same time, most Jews are law-abiding citizens. And where are the people that we supported in past elections? Where are the people that we donated to in past elections? Why are they so silent? Where are they? Where are they? If these people who come up to Bathurst and Sheppard, if they were in the Gay Village or in Little Jamaica, they'd be gone in 2 minutes. They'd be taken away. And we know cases of that happening.
And there seems to be a lack of political will to enforce a law when it comes to attacks on Jews. That seems to be clear. Because if the same thing at the Eaton Center happened, but they were chanting against any minority group, like against Black people or the LGBT whatever community, I think that that would've been shut down very quickly. Or imagine there were just a group of white supremacist skinhead Nazi types that were just, "We hate Black people. Let's enslave Black people." egregious as that, it would be shut down right away.
The phrase now out there is two-tiered law enforcement. And when I go online and I do my videos at Bathurst and Sheppard, and I clearly say this would never be allowed in any other minority neighborhood.
So given that, civil society through its elected representatives, through its police, are saying, "Jews, we don't want you here." Is that not the message that we're receiving?