Several well-known Canadian Jews have said that they are moving to the United States, or are considering doing so, to escape rising Jew-hatred in the Great White North, according to a National Review article.
Georgann Burke, a political strategist in Ottawa, is moving to Florida after nearly 40 years in Canada. She told NR that she first moved to Toronto from Buffalo, N.Y., seeking more Jewish educational options for her children.
The National Review article also says that two of Burke’s children are also “fleeing” Canada, and that Avi Glina, a Jewish real estate developer and investor in Toronto, and Dahlia Kurtz, a Jewish radio host, are also thinking of relocating.
“I get death threats, I get rape threats,” Kurtz told the magazine. “I’ve had people tell me that the gas chamber is waiting.”
The National Review article didn’t cite statistics on how many Jewish Canadians might move. Vivian Bercovici, the Canadian ambassador to Israel from 2014 to 2016, told the magazine, “ I know a lot of people who’ve left. I know a lot who are leaving, and I know many more who are talking about it.”
Michael Sachs, who was director of Western Canada for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre until last month, penned a recent op-ed in the National Post titled “Why I’m moving my family to the United States.”
Sachs, who is now senior director of strategic philanthropy at the Jewish Federation of Tulsa, Okla., wrote in the article about “multiple death threats over the last few years for advocating for my community.”
“For my family, the luxury of patience has run out, and our confidence in Canada’s political leadership is gone,” he wrote.
Data from the 2021 Census reports some 335,295 Canadians identified as Jews by religion, up from 329,500 in 2011.
