Holocaust survivor warns Canada about rising anti-Semitism from Auschwitz

AUSCHWITZ: A Holocaust survivor from Canada has warned of rising anti-Semitism in his country and called on the country’s leaders to take action against the perpetrators.

Nate Leipciger spoke Tuesday at the annual March of the Living at Auschwitz in Poland, as thousands of people gathered to remember those killed in the Holocaust against a backdrop of growing anti-Semitism around the world.

The 98-year-old said he was recently targeted in Toronto when mezuzahs (sacred scrolls) were forcibly removed from the doors of apartments in his building.

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“Once you lose that, you don’t know when or where the next attack might happen. It is deeply disturbing to live in a free, democratic country – where everyone is meant to have equal rights – and to be persecuted in this way,” he added.

Leipciger was born in Poland in 1928 and was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. He survived several camps and a death march before being liberated in 1945 and later emigrating to Canada in 1948.

The only way to prevent history from repeating itself, he said, is to advocate for the truth and confront deception and lies.

Temple Emanu-El in Toronto, Canada, was shot at on March 3, 2026. No injuries were reported. (Nick Lachance/Toronto star)

“The flight is over. For centuries we have been running. We must stand up for our right to live as Jews in any country, including Israel, as free citizens enjoying the fruits of Western culture, of which we are a part,” he added.

Since the Hamas-led massacre of October 7, 2023, Canada has seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism, with B’nai Brith Canada reporting 6,219 incidents in 2024 – more than double the number recorded in 2022.

Although 2025 figures have yet to be released, Public Safety Canada noted that from April to June 2025, “of hate crimes against religion… the majority were against the Jewish community (69%).”

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Canadian Jewish communities are “extremely concerned” about a rise in anti-Semitism, a reality that Israeli officials have privately and publicly conveyed to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

Crowds pass through the entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau as the March of the Living concludes on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (Yossi Zeliger)

Moed said Israel has offered to expand cooperation with Canada in areas such as education and security coordination, and has initiated roundtable discussions on policies, regulations and best practices.

“It is the job of law enforcement in various countries to designate terrorist organizations, as we have done with certain aspects of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The world should do this collectively, and America is at the forefront of that fight,” Kaploun said.

Earlier this month, shots were fired at a Jewish restaurant in Toronto during Passover. In March, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, sent a letter urging Ottawa to step up efforts to protect Jewish communities after three synagogues in the Toronto area were hit by gunfire in just a week.

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Richard Marceau, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and general counsel at the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, noted that Jewish Canadians are 25 times more likely than any other group to be victims of hate crimes.

“Addressing this crisis is essential not only to protect the Jewish community, but also to safeguard the future of the Canadian way of life,” he continued. “All levels of government must do more to protect Canadians, including by ensuring robust and consistent enforcement of existing laws, improving transparency of prosecutorial decisions, strengthening support – including financial – for community safety and addressing the drivers of radicalization in Canada.”

SanJaya Wijayakoon, an RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who joined a global law enforcement delegation at the March of the Living, said engagement with the Jewish community is critical to policing.

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Anti-Israel protesters hold anti-Semitic posters in Alberta, Canada, on April 13, 2025. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)

“A large part of our work is building contacts and maintaining strong relationships that allow us to receive information, provide advice and guidance in ensuring safety and, if something crosses the line into criminality, to fully investigate,” he said.

“I think as the years go by, fewer and fewer people within the police understand what happened in Europe in 1945. By participating in this program and this march, we can go back and talk to our people about what I learned and observed, and they can apply it in their daily work,” he added.

Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel Region, pointed to the recent synagogue shootings in Toronto and criticized the government’s response as insufficient.

“I would like to see the Prime Minister properly define the problem and stop sitting around pretending that radical Islam does not exist,” Adams said.

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“We are under attack. Foreign actors are active in Western countries in three areas: they send radical imams to mosques, they invest enormous amounts of money in education systems and they target us on social media. I think the response from Western leaders, with the exception of President Trump, is completely lacking,” he said.

“Everyone in the West needs to wake up. They are trying to take away our freedom. It starts with the Jews, but never ends with the Jews,” he added.