Two Ottawa mothers recently sat their children down for a difficult conversation about Anti-Semitism — much earlier than they had planned.
Mothers say they are now worried about their Jewish The children have recently become targets of hate speech as reports of anti-Semitism continue to rise across Canada.
Anna, who grew up Jewish in the Soviet Union, said she advised her 11-year-old daughter not to wear the Star of David when she leaves home after a classmate told her several months ago that she had to end her life because of her heritage.
“She said… 'A boy told me that a lot of Jews have to die and I have to kill myself because I'm Jewish,'” Anna said. The Roy Green Show Saturday.
“I can't even describe how I felt. She said 'Mom, I'm confused. I'm Canadian… why should I hide who I am?'”
Global News has agreed not to use Anna's last name out of concern for her family's safety. After moving to Canada and starting a family, she said she never thought her children would face the adversity she experienced in Russia because they were Jewish.
“We came to Canada because we believed it was a beautiful, safe, diverse country where we could raise our children. Now I'm back. I'm scared, I'm terrified,” Anna said. “I'm very worried about her safety.”
Tejaswinhi Srinivas, an Indian-American who marries a Canadian Jew, said she had “no idea” her son would be singled out at age five because of his identity.
Srinivas told Roy Green on Saturday that her son recently confided in her husband that an older kid on the school bus “asked all the Jewish people to raise their hands.”
“My son told his father that he knew not to raise his hands because the kid sounded fierce,” Srinivas said.
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She said it was “completely shocking” to hear about the incident. She said her son's understanding of being Jewish had always been tied to positive memories such as the Hanukkah candles, but those memories had now been tainted.
“His focus has shifted over the last few months from just loving these traditions to realizing that there are people who don’t like Jews right now and wouldn’t like him even if they knew who he was,” she said. “That can be heartbreaking when you’re a kid trying to make sense of the world.”
Srinivas said she knew that one day she would talk to her son about his lineage, but not so soon.
“We knew that one day we would have to talk to our kids, as many Jewish families have, about why all of Dad’s family was killed in the Holocaust. But we weren’t ready to go that far.”
Survey: Anti-Semitism on the rise in Canada
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel sparked a sharp increase in anti-Semitism in Canada. Global News Investigation The conclusion was reached in February based on documents, interviews and data collected by police.
Homes, businesses, schools, places of worship, neighborhoods and institutions have been targeted, and community leaders are reporting an unprecedented surge in hate crimes against Jews.
“We are in unprecedented times,” said Nico Slobinsky, vice president for the Pacific region at the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “We are already seeing the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism.”
A 15-year-old boy Arrested on terrorism charges In December 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the attack was a plot against the Ottawa Jewish community.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after the arrest Rise of anti-Semitism in Canada 'horrifying'.
“What we’re seeing, especially right now with the rise in anti-Semitism overseas, is horrifying, and we have to act, and we are acting,” Trudeau said in an interview with Mercedes Stephenson, Global News’ Ottawa bureau chief, at the end of the year.
Three shootings at Jewish schools occurred last week. In Toronto Saturday, Jewish schools in Montreal On Wednesday and Friday, a synagogue in Vancouver Throwing a “Molotov cocktail” at its front door.
Trudeau said Thursday following the Montreal shooting that he was “disgusted by these vile and shameless acts of anti-Semitism.”
One mother said: 'Silence is not an option'
Srinivas, who is also a clinical psychologist, said she has been gently talking to her son about anti-Semitism since his experience on the bus.
“It's so important for kids this age to know that they can confide in their parents and that parents can be open and honest. So just creating that space for him to know that it's OK and that we're here to support him in any way that he needs is really important,” she said.
Srinivas, who also wrote an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen last week about the normalization of anti-Semitism in Canada, told Roy Green that her son's case made her realize that “silence is not an option.”
“We need social support, we need to unite against anti-Semitism because this normalisation is likely to lead to incidents like this.”
— With files from Roy Green, David Baxter, Mercedes Stephenson, Stewart Bell and Jeff Semple of Global News
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