With police at school, Vancouver Jewish community marks Oct. 7 with sadness, unease

VANCOUVER — Allie Saks had just dropped off two children at the Talmud Torah School on Oak Street in Vancouver, under the watch of multiple police wearing bulletproof vests, and at least one police dog.

She broke down in tears.

"I think it's scary for all of us," Saks said of the police presence on Monday, the anniversary of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and triggered the ongoing war that Gaza's health ministry says has left more than 41,000 Palestinians dead.

"It feels like a day of grieving, a day of mourning," she said as her voice trailed off into tears. "It's hard to drop your kid off somewhere where you have to see police in front. And it's emotional for all of us."

Vancouver Police placed extra officers at faith-based schools as well as places of worship and gathering on Monday.

Police, security guards and volunteers could be seen at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue, also on Oak Street.

At the community centre, a Vancouver Police mobile command has been set up in the parking lot.

A mobile monitoring unit featuring multiple cameras was parked in front of the nearby synagogue, the site of an unsolved arson attack in May that blackened the temple's front doors.

Rabbi Andrew Rosenblatt at the synagogue said congregation members were in a sombre mood, "a little bit akin to the anniversary of 9/11," referring to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001.

About 100 of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year have not returned, and hostilities have spilled into nearby Lebanon.

"My impression is that people are more observing this as a day of sadness and memory … than they're perceiving it, at least here in Vancouver, as a day of being threatened," Rosenblatt said.

He added that a silver lining has been the response of most Canadians in the last year, and that people are "rediscovering how important it is to feel close and in lock-step with the Jewish community."

"There are a lot of people who come up to us and say, 'We understand what you're going through. We really stand with you. We stand with Israel,'" Rosenblatt said. "There are many of those people around, even though maybe on the news it looks like there (are) people who say, 'long live Oct. 7' — which is a regrettable and detestable thing to say."

Vancouver Police Chief Const. Adam Palmer said last week that protests to mark the anniversary across the city were posing a "significant" risk of disorder.

Hundreds of people waved flags and sang at a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery led by the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, which promoted its events on social media by referring to the Oct. 7 attacks as "Al-Aqsa Flood," the Hamas code name for the operation.

Nasser Najjar attended the event in a T-shirt with a family photo printed on the front. He said his family had been scattered around the world since Oct. 7.

Najjar said he paid about US$7,500 each to get his parents out of Gaza to Egypt, but his older sister and nieces are still trapped there and survive on canned food with little to no water or electricity.

“It's been a year of genocide, a year of ethnic cleansing, a year where a lot of atrocities and pain took place, but also it’s a year where liberation is starting,” said Najjar.

A woman who wore a keffiyeh, a Palestinian black and white scarf, covering her face told the cheering crowd that liberation for Palestine brought them together and they have carried on their resistance efforts by blocking Vancouver traffic and causing losses for businesses, and they show “no sign of slowing down.”

The speaker, who didn’t want to give her name after the speech, said they had a message for police and Israel.

“You will flinch first, we aren’t going anywhere,” she said. “You might carry empire’s weapons, empire’s authority, but we carry with us the strength, the convention, the whole of humanity, and it’s something you can never take from us.”

The group walked for several blocks around the city core as dozens of officers followed in its wake.

Long lines formed outside a Vancouver synagogue Monday night as people attending a memorial gathering had to go through metal detectors.

Both NDP Leader David Eby and B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad attended the event on the night before they were expected to take part in a TV debate alongside Green leader Sonia Furstenau ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 19.

Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver chief executive Ezra Shanken said there was ongoing unease among both the local Jewish community and patrons of other ethnicities who are members of the community centre.

Shanken said the federation had spent about $100,000 a month on security and public safety at its institutions in the past year, and more needed to be done to oppose what he called "violent rhetoric" and antisemitism from some protest groups.

When asked about the trauma felt by the Jewish community over Oct. 7, Shanken referred to statements by American-Israeli activist Rachel Goldberg-Polin — whose son was abducted and killed in the attack.

"She explained her pain as being in trauma, as if we're in a car accident," Shanken said. "And you think about that car accident in the past, that's not what we're in. We're in the car accident and we're still trapped in the car. A year later, we're still trapped in the car."

A founding member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada said he wanted to make it clear that there are a “significant number” of people in the Jewish community who don’t support Israel's actions in the war.

Sid Shniad, who attended a pro-Palestine rally in Vancouver on the weekend, said in an interview Monday that members of his group are "horrified and appalled by the crimes that are being committed against innocent Palestinians."

The leaders of all three major political parties in British Columbia highlighted their support for the province's Jewish community while on the campaign trail Monday.

Eby paid tribute to Ben Mizrachi, a Vancouver man killed in the Oct. 7 attack.

"He was just 22, and we lost him," Eby said in Maple Ridge, B.C., adding that everybody must condemn the "glorification of violence."

In Vancouver, Rustad denounced the attack and some local protesters he said were "celebrating the massacre of Jews and glorifying terrorist organizations."

"There are still hostages being held," said Rustad, who wore around his neck a metal tag engraved "bring them home — now" in solidarity with the hostages.

Furstenau said in a statement that Greens "are committed to the safety of all British Columbians and stand firmly against hate in all its forms."

— With files from Nono Shen

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press