Toronto police are investigating a possible hate crime after a window was smashed overnight at the Shaarei Shomayim shul in North York over Shabbos.

Officers responded to reports of mischief in the area of Bathurst Street and Glencairn Avenue, where investigators say the window was broken with an unknown object. It is unclear exactly when the incident occurred, and police said no suspect description is available at this time. The Toronto Police Service said the damage is believed to have occurred overnight, no injuries were reported, and the department’s Hate Crime Unit has been notified.

The vandalism marks the second time the shul has been targeted in three months. Just past midnight on March 7, police were called to Shaarei Shomayim after its front doors were damaged by gunfire. No one was inside the building at the time, and no injuries were reported. That investigation remains ongoing.

The March shooting was one of two shul attacks in the Toronto area that night, with the front doors of the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT) shul in Thornhill sprayed with gunfire minutes apart from the Shaarei Shomayim attack. Five days earlier, on the night of March 2, gunshots were fired at Temple Emanu-El in North York while people were inside. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the three shootings as “criminal antisemitic attacks.”

The incidents come amid a documented surge in antisemitic violence across Canada. In the first two months of 2026 alone, 22 antisemitic incidents were reported in Toronto, and according to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, a Jewish Canadian is 25 times more likely to experience a hate crime than any other Canadian. Toronto police have responded to the wave of violence by deploying armed officers at Jewish institutions around the city.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)