Holocaust survivor warns Canada about rising anti-Semitism from Auschwitz

AUSCHWITZ: A Canadian Holocaust survivor has warned of growing anger in his country, calling on the nation’s leaders to take action against perpetrators.

Nate Leipciger spoke at the annual March for the Living in Auschwitz in Poland on Tuesday as thousands gathered to remember those killed in the Holocaust against a backdrop of growing global discord.

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

The violence escalated in March when his synagogue came under fire. “The front doors and lobby were destroyed. It’s too bad that we’ve lost our sense of security,” Leipciger told Fox News Digital.

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“Once you lose that, you no longer know when or where the next attack might happen. It is very worrying to live in a free, democratic country – where everyone is meant to have equal rights – and be persecuted in this way,” he added.

Born in Poland in 1928, Leipziger was deported to Auschwitz in 1943. He survived several camps and a death march before being liberated in 1945, later immigrating to Canada in 1948.

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

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

“The run is over. For centuries, we ran. We must fight 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 October 7, 2023, massacre led by Hamas, Canada has seen a sharp increase in antisemitism, with B’nai Brith Canada reporting 6,219 incidents in 2024 – more than double the number recorded in 2022.

Although statistics for 2025 have not yet been released, Public Safety Canada noted that from April to June 2025, “Among religious hate crimes… the majority were directed at the Jewish community (69%).”

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Canadian Jewish communities are “deeply concerned” about rising antisemitism, a fact that Israeli officials have privately and publicly presented to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.

“We are aware of the great concern among Jewish communities in Canada about their safety and well-being, as individuals and as a community, including their institutions,” Israel’s Ambassador to Ottawa Ido Moed told Fox News Digital. “Israel considers the recent attacks on synagogues very serious and considers Canada one of the most vulnerable countries in terms of shooting incidents.”

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

Moed said Israel has offered to expand cooperation with Canada in all areas including education and security, and has begun round-table discussions on policy, principles and best practices.

U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism Yehuda Kaploun told Fox News Digital in Auschwitz that leadership accountability is essential in dealing with antisemitism.

“It is within the power of law enforcement in different 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 must do that collectively, and America is at the forefront of that fight,” Kaploun said.

Earlier this month, there was a shooting at a Jewish-owned restaurant in Toronto during Passover. In March, Israel’s minister of Diaspora affairs and 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 bombed within 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.

“What we’ve seen in Canada is a failure at all levels to address anti-Semitism,” he told Fox News Digital.

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

SanJaya Wijayakoon, an RCMP superintendent in Vancouver who joined the global law enforcement team at the March for the Living, said that working with the Jewish community is a cornerstone of policing.

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EDMONTON, CANADA – APRIL 13 Anti-Israel protesters hold antisemitic placards in Alberta, Canada on April 13, 2025. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via AP)

“A big part of our job is to build contacts and maintain strong relationships through which we can get information, provide advice and guidance to ensure safety, and, if something crosses the line into crime, investigate fully,” he said.

“I think that as the years go by, fewer and fewer people in the police understand what happened in 1945 in Europe. Being in this program and this march allows us to go back and talk to our people about what I have learned and seen, and they can use it in their daily work,” he added.

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

“I would like to see the prime minister clearly explain this problem and stop pretending that Islam doesn’t exist,” said Adams.

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“We are under attack. Foreign actors are working in the West in three areas: they send radical imams to mosques, they invest large sums of money in educational programs and they target us on social media. I find the response of Western leaders, except for President Trump, 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 it doesn’t end with the Jews,” he added.