Anyone concerned with the relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel would be reassured to read that the May 19 annual Israel parade in New York City, involved 50,000 marchers. One week later, the annual Toronto Walk for Israel (Mathilda Heller, The Jerusalem Post) attracted an even larger number, 56,000 participants.

While both events indicate strong support for Israel (not only by Jews, but also by non-Jews), there is a notable difference; the Jewish population for Greater New York City is about 1.4 million, that for Toronto is roughly 180,000. Assuming that the vast majority of the Toronto walkers were Jewish Torontonians, this means that perhaps 25 %, or more, of all Jews living in Toronto took part! Heightened security measures by New York police may have had a dampening effect on those trying to decide whether to participate or not, but the same may be said with respect to the size of the Toronto crowd.

Both events were comforting, but I have a lingering concern, and here’s why. The marchers in New York included Kathy Hochul, governor of New York State, as well Andrew Cuomo, the former governor (and leading candidate for future mayor of New York), Eric Adams, the current mayor, state Attorney-General Letitia James, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and several congressional representatives. Several spoke, with Hochul saying regarding the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, “Bring them home now.”

What about Toronto? While a number of government officials, including current and former members of Parliament and city of Toronto council members participated, no senior political figure, whether at the city, provincial or federal level, was present. Indeed, even the mayor of the city, Olivia Chow, did not appear.

How can this be? Why would the mayor of Canada’s largest city, with the largest Jewish community in the country, not participate in an event of such importance its Jewish residents? After all, while the march was pitched as a march in support of Israel, its underlying purpose was to provide a sense of solidarity to a community beleaguered by post-October 7 antisemitic violence.

Thousands take to Toronto in Giant Walk for Israel, May, 2025. (credit: UJA Federation of Greater Toronto)
Thousands take to Toronto in Giant Walk for Israel, May, 2025. (credit: UJA Federation of Greater Toronto)

Canada is an ethno-cultural mosaic

The answer has a lot to do with the fact that while Canadians and Americans have much in common, particularly language (other than Quebec) and culture, there are significant differences, a major one being that while the US is often described as a melting pot, Canada is an ethno-cultural mosaic in which diversity is encouraged.

Indeed, a 2018 Environics Institute survey of Jews in Canada revealed that Canadian Jews identify more strongly as Jews than American Jews. Canadian Jews attend synagogue services, participate in Jewish events and rituals, learn Hebrew, and visit Israel in higher numbers than their American cousins.

While this helps us understand the impressive size of the Toronto event, it doesn’t explain the lack of attention by senior Canadian officials. Does this inattention have anything to do with the difference in size of the two Jewish communities?

Jews appeared in both Canada and the US in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the growth of the Canadian Jewish community was considerably slower. It was 1832 before the first Jew settled permanently in Toronto, while the first Canadian census, held in 1871, reported only 1,115 Jews in a population of over 3.5 million. By 1870, there were 200,000 Jews in the US in a population of 34 million.

Jewish immigration to both Canada and the US increased exponentially during the late 1800s and early 1900s in reaction to pogroms in Eastern Europe, but the trajectory was steeper for the US. Today, the American Jewish community is considerably larger.

Depending on the definition used, never simple when it comes to Jewish identity, the Jewish population of Canada is between 350,000 and 400,000, a little less than 1% of the total population. The number of Jews in the US is a topic of recent debate, but I think it is safe to say that the number is somewhere between 6 and 7 million, or about 2% of the US total.

A 2023 article by Andrew Phillips in the Toronto Star also draws attention to the growing influence of Muslim voters in Canada as their numbers increase. The most recent Canadian census (2021) indicated there were 1.8 million Muslims in Canada (4.9% of the total population), triple the number counted just 20 years earlier. (The number of Muslims in the US, between 3.5 and 4.5 million, represents only a little over 1% of the total population.)

During the 1930s, the then-150,000 Jews of Canada, a small minority among the French and English founding nations (indigenous Canadians, the First Nations, became a part of the narrative only recently), learned a sad lesson. Due to a struggling economy, but also antisemitism, only a small number of Jews entered Canada from 1933 until 1945, in spite of applications from many thousands trying to get out of Nazi-dominated Europe. Efforts by the Jewish community proved useless, even in cases involving family reunification.

Today, as a result of a policy of welcoming immigrants and refugees from across the globe, Canada is perhaps the most diverse society in the world. Jews in the Diaspora have viewed diversity as a good thing, hoping it would be a harbinger of a more tolerant society. But ironically, it also means that Jewish influence, as reflected by voting numbers, may clash with the competing interests of other ethnic or religious groups. For Canadian Jews this is a new situation to learn to cope with.

The writer, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.