Rabbi Howard Morrison

We complete the book of Bereishit-Genesis today just as we have recently completed the year 2025. While cautious optimism surrounds our brothers and sisters in Israel, the same came not be said for Diaspora Jews. We witnessed the horrors of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia three weeks ago. We understood that silence in the wake of evil was complicit to the evil itself. During the tragic years of the Shoah, most of the world stood by silently to the unimaginable horrors. Elie Wiesel once famously said that "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander."

What would Elie Wiesel have said about the events surrounding Boxing Day at the Eaton Centre a week ago? In the middle of a crowded mall, the Hamas supportive mob chanted for "intifada" in the heart of our city. As Mathew Taub wrote in his National Post article, "The Eaton Centre mob wasn't a protest; it was a warning." "If a crowd took over a major Canadian mall chanting for violence against any other group, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, 0r LGBTQ Canadians, the response would be swift and unequivocal. Police intervention. Political condemnation. Media clarity. But when the Jews are the target, the reaction is hesitation, euphemism, and moral fog. . . . This movement . . .  is deliberately working to turn public sentiment against Jewish Canadians by association, casting Jews as foreign, illegitimate, colonial, or dangerous. . . . When mobs feel comfortable chanting for violent uprising in one of Canada's most visible locations, with little consequence, it sends a message that this behaviour is tolerated. . . . We have seen this road before."

Three weeks ago, that same road in Australia resulted in tragic losses of Jewish life. Are not the embers burning here, with no one in authority putting out the fire before it becomes too much of an uncontrollable blaze?

I think of our Torah readings today and this afternoon being relevant. The first book of the Torah concludes with Joseph being a hero, with Jacob and his family being welcome in the land of Egypt. Notwithstanding some minor cultural or verbal sentiments directed by the Egyptians against Joseph's family, all goes well. Sounds like Canada at its best. Despite the occasional Antisemtiism, multiculturalism has been the pride of Canada with tolerance and respect for diversity and pluralism.

This afternoon at Mincha, we will begin to read the second book of the Torah, Shemot-Exodus. It did not take long for open minded Egypt to change. "A new Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did not remember Joseph." Before you know it, a small minority Israelite presence is seen through false propaganda as a threat to Egyptian society. New edicts and legislations are directed against our people. We know how this story unfolds - slavery, oppression, murder of baby boys, and more.

Unchecked propaganda and rhetoric, words fueling potential violence, are now socially accepted and running amuck in our city. While the situation is already out of hand, it can easily become worse. What will we do? I believe that Jewish government officials are doing their best, but what pressures can we put upon higher echelon non-Jewish government leaders right now? 2025 ended with alarm and concern. What will evolve in 2026?

In between the first and second books of the Torah, we added the words, "Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazek- Be of strength, be of strength, and let us be strengthened together." We all need now to be strong - not passively, not reactively,  but pro-actively. Now, the beginning of 2026 is our time to act before Toronto becomes a repeat of Sydney Australia.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Howard Morrison