Montreal’s Jewish community defiant as it mourns victims of Hamas attack on Israel

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Thousands of members of Montreal’s Jewish community gathered Monday evening in Hampstead Park to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas rampage in southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.

Speakers and those attending the event spoke about the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, particularly Côte-St-Luc resident Alexandre Look and other Canadians who were killed that day, as well as the more than 250 people who were taken hostage by the terror group and affiliated militants during the attack.

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Many also spoke about the resilience of Montreal’s Jewish community, in the face of what they described as rising antisemitism, and emphasized their support for Israel and its war effort in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, as well as in Lebanon.

“Tonight is an evening of mourning for the Jewish community in Montreal, a year has passed since the unspeakable massacre of Jews in southern Israel,” said Yair Szlak, the president and CEO of Federation CJA, which organized the event. “None of us have had the time to just step back and say we’re mourning, we’re crying, we’re sad. We’ve lost 1,685 people since Oct. 7.”

While there may have been feelings of fear and anxiety in Montreal’s Jewish community, many Jewish Montrealers have reinforced their connections to their faith and community over the past year, Szlak said.

“We will not retreat as (former Israeli prime minister) Menachem Begin said, we are not Jews on trembling knees, and that’s what the Jewish community in Montreal is today, we’re proud to be Jewish, we’re proud to be Zionists, we’re proud to stand here tonight,” he said, adding that more than 4,000 people were expected to attend the memorial.

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Among those who spoke was Raquel Look, whose son was killed on Oct. 7, while using his body to shield others from the attack.

“As a mother, I stand before you not just in grief, but also with resilience, determined to honour his memory, and the memory of all those who we lost, in a way that reflects his courage, his compassion and his unwavering spirit. Alexandre’s death left a void that can never be filled, but it has inspired a profound commitment to eradicate hate and antisemitism,” she said.

Israeli Consul General Paul Hirshson spoke about the 101 people who were taken hostage by Hamas and remain unaccounted for.

“It’s been a long year, 101 family members remain hostage in Gaza because of the evil that came calling on Oct. 7,” he said in a speech.

Hirshson criticized Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, who did not attend the event, for not calling Look’s family and sharing “a word of compassion” with them and suggested the federal government is “indirectly rewarding acts of terror” by not supporting Israel of the world stage and by “placing a de facto embargo on an ally at war.”

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However, he praised the Quebec government, which opened a business office in Tel Aviv after the beginning of the war, and thanked provincial cabinet ministers Benoit Charette and Pascale Déry for attending the event. “Their support has been superb,” he said.

Hirshson also defended Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israel has limited civilian casualties and that for each Hamas fighter killed, its forces have killed 1.4 civilians.

The most recent Israeli figures claim that between 17,000 and 18,000 Hamas fighters have been killed, suggesting Israel believes it has killed between 23,800 and 25,200 civilians.

“Yes, there have been many civilian casualties, and every civilian casualty is too many, and the responsibility for every single one of them in Gaza lies at the doorstep of Hamas,” he said.

Between the speakers, there were prayers and songs, as well as the laying of wreaths for those who were killed on Oct. 7 and the Israeli soldiers who have died in combat since then, as well as videos showing scenes from the attacks.

As members of Montreal’s Jewish community mourned and called for those still held hostage to be released, in downtown Montreal, protesters accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

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Steve Sebag, the Federation CJA board chair, took aim at protesters during his speech.

“Israel is leading the free world. She is sacrificing her best and brightest to uphold universal values while taking immense heat for doing what every Western government wishes it had the courage to do … the only people truly upset seeing Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis and other terror proxies defeated are humanities and liberal arts students and professors and their Islamofascist puppet masters,” he said to large cheers from the crowd.

Among the speakers was Eran Masas, an Israeli, who spoke about waking up to the sound of what she thought was rain and only later learning it was gunshots from the massacre at the Nova music festival. Masas said she fled to a safe room, where she stayed for more than 30 hours, learning about the killing of loved ones through WhatsApp messages.

Leor Antebi, who was one of the thousands of attendees, said she’s happy to see how the Jewish community has come together since the worst killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

“It’s horrible to feel alone, especially in hard times like this, I feel like now you can go in the street and every Jewish person is like a family member, everyone’s here for one another, everyone’s supporting one another and it’s beautiful to see that,” said Antebi, who moved to Israel from Montreal in December and was visiting.

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