Antisemitism in Ontario schools ‘dire’ and underreported, Canadian study finds

Antisemitism in Ontario schools is worse than previously believed, according to a report this week by the Canadian government.

Since the Hamas terror group launched its war against Israel on October 7, 2023, at least 781 antisemitic incidents were reported in K-12 schools in the Ontario province through April 2025, according to the report, commissioned by the Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons.

Nearly half of antisemitic incidents reported to school authorities were not investigated, and nearly one in six were initiated or approved by a teacher or involved a school-sanctioned activity, the report found.

The report, designed to provide a clearer picture of the situation in Ontario schools, was based on the responses of 599 Jewish parents to an online survey promoted through Jewish organizations. Until now, most of what was known about antisemitism in Ontario schools was based on anecdotal reports or complaints that remained unresolved or undocumented, the report said.

The survey defined antisemitic incidents as those that parents and their children consider antisemitic.

“The consequences of widespread antisemitism for Jewish students and their parents are dire,” the report concluded. “Not all school boards are similarly affected by the spread of antisemitism, [but] little is being done to resolve the crisis.”

About half of Canada’s 400,000 Jews live in Ontario’s largest city, Toronto, according to 2021 census data. Some 30,000 Jewish school-age children live in Ontario, the report said.

About one in eight parents who responded to the survey ultimately moved their children to a different school due to antisemitism, the report said. In some cases, this involved moving to a different home.

About 60 percent of reported incidents were expressions of negative attitudes toward Israel, including 16% that involved a teacher or a school-sanctioned activity expressing a point of view that made Jewish children feel unwelcome or excluded.

Included among these were 14% of cases where Jewish schoolchildren were personally held responsible for aspects of the Israel-Hamas war, such as a high school student accused by a classmate of being a “terrorist, rapist, and baby killer” in September 2024.

Incidents were reported of teachers bringing in speakers to present radical and unbalanced Palestinian points of view on the conflict, and of school trustees sporting keffiyehs at school board meetings where the mistreatment of Jewish children was addressed.

Canada’s school systems have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which includes rhetoric and actions that deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. However, school boards apply this inconsistently, and frequently fail to categorize such incidents as antisemitic, the report noted.

More than 40% of responses involved Holocaust denial, assertions of excessive Jewish wealth or power, or blanket condemnation of Jews.

These are “the kinds of accusations and denunciations that began to be expunged from the Canadian vocabulary and mindset in the 1960s and were, one would have thought, nearly totally forgotten by the second decade of the 21st century,” the report noted.

In one reported example in September 2024, a 13-year-old Jewish girl was subjected numerous times to being surrounded by five boys repeatedly shouting “Sieg Heil!” and raising their hands in the Nazi salute, despite her begging them to stop. In another case from October 2024, a six-year-old in Ottawa was informed by her teacher that she was only “half human” because one of her parents is Jewish.

About 6% of incidents involved physical assault, and 15% involved vandalism, including malicious property damage and graffiti. Some 35% of incidents involved spoken harassment, including threats, intimidation, expression of hatred, incitement to violence, and insults. Another 10% involved aggressive hand gestures such as slitting the throat or shooting.

When incidents were reported to school authorities, 49% were not investigated, and in 8% the school said the incident was not antisemitic. In 27% of cases, the school did take some sort of remedial action, including providing counseling, suspending the perpetrator, or reporting the incident to police.

Canadian Jewish groups said the report shows that not enough is being done to fight antisemitism in the school system.

“These latest revelations are a searing indictment of what we’ve been hearing anecdotally for some time now,” said Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center President and CEO Michael Levitt. “While the Ontario government and some school boards are making an effort to bring antisemitism training and Holocaust education to staff and students, our education system must do more to root out antisemitism and hold perpetrators accountable. There must be a genuine commitment by schools and school boards to ensure every student, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, feels welcome and safe.”

Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said the report “makes one thing clear: the status quo for Ontario Jewish students is unsustainable and unacceptable.”

“To protect Jewish students and staff, it is imperative that the provincial government accelerate the implementation of the recently delayed expanded mandatory Holocaust curriculum to address the troubling lack of understanding and ongoing dehumanization of Jews,” CIJA director of government relations Josh Landau said in a statement.

“The government must act to implement robust, system-wide reforms that will ensure schools are safe and inclusive for all students, including those targeted because of their Jewish identity.”