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B’nai Brith Canada's CEO Michael Mostyn, in a May 25 “open letter to Canada,” asked whether Canada is still safe for Jews.

The op-ed, published in the National Post, was addressed to Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, premiers, mayors, university presidents and “all Canadians of good conscience.”

Mostyn stated that he wrote the letter “on behalf of Canada’s oldest grassroots Jewish community organization, B’nai Brith Canada, to our political and civil society leaders. In a broader sense, this letter is addressed to all Canadians.”

He called the surge in anti-Semitic incidents over the past few weeks a “wake-up call for Canadian Jewry.”

“There is a palpable fear from within our community that Jewish life here is becoming unsafe. I have never had so many individuals contact me to question their personal safety after witnessing the shocking anti-Semitic incidents of recent days,” he wrote.

Mostyn noted that many Canadian Jews are becoming pessimistic about the long-term prospects for themselves and their families in Canada.

The “shocking incidents” of Jews being attacked at pro-Israel rallies and harassment, both online and by vehicles with Palestinian flags following them around their neighbourhoods yelling “Free Palestine” – and especially the incident where a group of young men banged on a door and screamed “Do any Jews live here?” – are “just the tip of the iceberg,” wrote Mostyn.

He added that there is an increasing lack of confidence among the Jewish community that Canadian institutions are dealing with the growing threat of Jew-hatred.

“At times, it seems there is a failure by many to acknowledge a basic truth: that the anti-Israel movement in Canada has become one of the largest, if not the largest, engine of Jew-hatred in this country,” he said.

He mentioned a recent letter signed by hundreds of journalists, many from mainstream news outlets, “arguing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is ‘not complicated’ and must be considered ‘ethnic cleansing.’ Tellingly, their letter lists the Palestinian victims of the recent round of conflict, but pretends Israeli victims don’t exist at all.”

Mostyn listed steps that all levels of government can take to “stem the tide of hate.”

“The Jewish community has contributed immensely to the soul of our nation. We now require decisive action to push back against this mounting anti-Semitism,” he wrote.