The Jewish community in Canada is visiting Filipino churches, holding their prayer services, and has mounted an emergency fundraising campaign to help the victims and their families, Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported on Friday.
This follows a sudden car ramming attack on pedestrians at a local Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver, in which at least 11 people died, and 30 more were wounded.
We are heartbroken by the tragic events at Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Festival. In solidarity with the Filipino community, Jewish Federation is honoured to raise funds to support those affected. Click here: https://t.co/KId5C25Wm3 pic.twitter.com/p0hzKMs9Tl
— Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver (@JewishVancouver) April 27, 2025
Filipino community members have expressed deep gratitude for the Jewish community’s support, calling it Kapwa—a shared sense of neighborly solidarity rooted in historic ties, local media reported.
David Decolongon, a Filipino-Canadian and associate director at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, was born in Vancouver to Filipino immigrant parents and has been supporting the Jewish community in addressing antisemitism in Canada since October 7, Canadian Jewish News wrote.
In an interview with Toronto journalist Ellin Bessner, he said that on the night everything happened, "some of the first people to reach out were leaders and members of the Jewish community" and that he is "eternally grateful" to all of his friends and family in the Jewish community, "who have been nothing but understanding and supportive during this dark time for the community."
Decolongon revealed that "a [Jewish] leader reached out and said if there are any people who are struggling to get home because of the police barricades or because public transit was no longer operating, that they would be willing to open their doors for the Filipino community members," Canadian Jewish News reported.
In addition, the director explained to CJN that the Jewish and the Filipino communities have been intertwined since the time of the Holocaust, including the Philippines' rescue of 1,200 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. He shared that the Philippines was the only country before the Holocaust to actually take in Jewish refugees, and that there is a small but thriving Jewish community that is still located in Manila and Makati.
Canadian man drives a vehicle into a crowd in Vancouver
Vancouver police reported that at approximately 8:14 p.m. on April 26, a man drove into a large crowd of people attending the Lapu Lapu Day Festival near East 43rd Avenue and Fraser Street.
Canadian police said that the 30-year-old suspect is in custody and that the investigation is still ongoing.