Last year’s walk was buoyed by the return of four Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas and held in Gaza, and this year’s event is equally timely, Lefton said. “It’s a scary time to be a Jew in Toronto and in Canada, in general. We have never seen this kind of hate targeted against our community before,” she said. “Our children are waking up and going to school knowing that there are very real threats that they’re facing. For the last year, our community has really been banding together to make sure that we stand up against this hate and use our voices, because we need to call attention to the fact that we’re facing this kind of hatred and antisemitism and that it’s not acceptable.”
