Jodie Katz has never volunteered for any political campaign. This time around, though, she feels she has no choice. On a cold windy morning in early April, she devoted hours to dropping off lawn signs for her Toronto riding’s Conservative candidate, Karen Stintz.
“I am a put-your-money-where-your-mouth is kind of gal,” said Katz. “The Liberals cannot win this riding, the Liberals cannot win the election.”
Katz, originally from Ottawa, has never voted Conservative before. She says she has mostly voted for the NDP, with some Liberal votes as well.
But this election she says she is supporting the Conservatives based on one issue: the party’s support for the Jewish community since Oct 7, 2023, and a recent survey suggests she’s not alone.
“For me and for the large majority of my friends, who are in the Jewish community, it is a one-issue election,” said Katz.
“The issue is the pervasive antisemitism that the Liberal Party specifically have failed us on, they have not been able to protect us.”
The numbers show antisemitism is on the rise in Canada. Statistics Canada reports a 71 per cent increase in hate crimes targeting the Jewish population between 2022 and 2023 — with the largest increase seen after the Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent war between Israel and Hamas.
Many Jewish day schools and synagogues have had to increase security at their campuses. Synagogues have been firebombed and vandalized. One Jewish girls school in Toronto was shot at three separate times.
It’s all left Katz rattled.
“I am legitimately, legitimately afraid,” said Katz. She recalls her own experience at the Walk for Israel last June.
“On either side of the street are masked individuals with keffiyehs and shouting horrible, horrible slurs against Jews, not Israelis, Jews. I’m a Jew and my son, my 11-year-old son, was shaking.”
Jewish voters look to Conservatives as an ally against antisemitism
Sociologist Robert Brym has studied trends among the Jewish community in Canada for much of his career and consulted last year on a survey by polling firm Leger, which found the rise in antisemitism is a top issue for Jews this election cycle.
“I found that the No. 1 issue in common with all Canadians was the economy, after all, Canadian Jews are Canadians and they’re worried about jobs and about the cost of living. The second one, however, not far behind, was antisemitism,” said Brym, a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Toronto.
The poll of 588 Canadian Jews, conducted from Aug. 28 to Sept. 16, found a shift in political support since a similar survey in 2021. Liberal Party support, which was dominant in 2021, fell from 39 per cent to 26 per cent.
Meanwhile, support for the Conservatives jumped from 36 to 55 per cent.
While those trends were similar to the general population over that time, the survey notes the shift among Jews was more pronounced.
Brym believes that fear amid rising antisemitism is behind the community’s apparent shift away from the Liberals to the Conservatives this election.
“The Jewish community feels that the Conservative Party is more supportive and operating with a heavier hand on these kinds of outbreaks of hate, so, that’s also encouraged the community to move toward the Conservatives,” said Brym.
Rabbi Jarrod Grover of Beth Tikva Synagogue in Toronto has experienced the rise of antisemitism first hand. His wife works at Bais Chaya Mushka, the North York girls school that was shot at three times. He said, among his congregants, a shift to support the Conservatives is something he’s noticed.
“There’s a lot of voices in the community who feel that as a Jew you have to vote Conservative and it’s almost treasonous not to,” said Grover.
“I think there has been a marked difference just in terms of the effort that the Conservative Party have made to care and reach out to the Jewish community on their issues compared to other political parties. So again, that’s gonna translate to votes, there’s no question.”
The synagogue’s ritual director, Irv Kirshenblat, agrees that a recent visit Conservative Leader Pierre Pollievre made to the synagogue went a long way to swaying his vote.
“He told us that he was with us, not only that he was with us, but that he felt our pain,” said Kirshenblat.
“Whereas, many of the other political candidates may have been speaking the words, but not walking the line, so to speak.”
Ellin Bessner hosts the biggest Jewish podcast in Canada, the daily podcast of The Canadian Jewish News. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, she has interviewed hundreds of Canadian Jews. She agrees she sees a shift among the community towards the Conservatives, and thinks it’s no accident.
“Pollievre’s people have been courting us, the Canadian Jewish News and Jewish synagogues, Jewish schools, they’ve been having big rallies, the Liberals have not been courting the Jewish voter,” she said.
Bessner also sees something else among the Jewish community in this election cycle she says is new.
“I call it ‘muscular Judaism,'” she said. “It’s mobilization like never before in the citizens, young people, in the university students, in high school students, they are marching, they are petitioning, they are loud and that is something that our community hasn’t seen before.”
Ben Mogil lives in midtown Toronto and hasn’t been politically involved before. This time is different. He recently held an event for the Conservative candidate in his riding, Don Stewart, despite being a Liberal voter most of his life. He says how he is now experiencing being Jewish in Canada has had an impact on him.
“Certainly, you know, at my kids’ schools, there is quite a lot of security now and then,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot more people that are voting Conservative that are Jewish than there ever have been before.”
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