CBC journalist says protesters tried to 'taunt and intimidate' him from attending Yom Kippur service - National Post
An image from Neil Herland's video shows protesters outside the Meridian Arts Centre in Toronto. Photo by @NEILNews /XArticle contentCBC National Radio News Reader Neil Herland recounts the intimidation he faced when trying to enter a building to attend Yom Kippur service in Toronto on Monday night, adding that he may have to leave Canada amid rising antisemitism.
“On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building,” wrote Herland in a post on X, where he identifies himself as a journalist and a Jew. His post came a day after a synagogue came under attack in Belleville, Ont., a city about two hours to the east.
Video taken by Herland shows a group of about 20 people milling about, blowing horns and waving Palestinian flags in front of the Meridian Arts Centre at Yonge and Sheppard, where The Song Shul holds annual events to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement. The synagogue doesn’t have its own building but rents different locations to hold services.
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“My late father was an Austrian Jew who survived the Holocaust in Romania. And came to Canada as a refugee. This year I got an Austrian passport, in case Canada becomes unsafe for me as a Jew. I fear that moment is approaching, here in Canada and elsewhere.”
In the video by Herland, the shouts of the group are hard to make out, but at one point someone yells: “Palestine will be free.” As Herland moves through the crowd, someone shouts in his face several times with a megaphone: “You’re going to hell!”
At another point he turns to look behind him — some distance away are two individuals with a placard that says “Where’s your humanity?” One of them shouts “Zionist alert” through a megaphone before waving at the camera.
I'm a journalist. And I happen to be Jewish. On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/2eH3MaC9QB
He added that the cantor (singer) at the event revealed that his nephew had been murdered on Rosh Hashana in Ukraine, in a suspected hate crime. The event listed Simon Spiro as the cantor.
