Toronto police investigating after second incident of mezuzahs stolen

TORONTO – Toronto police are investigating after multiple mezuzahs were stolen outside Jewish homes for the second time this month.

Officers were called just before 12:30 p.m. on Christmas Day to a condo building in the Finch Avenue East and Bayview Avenue area, where police said four mezuzahs had been taken from four units.

A mezuzah is a parchment inscribed with scripture that many Jewish people affix to the doorpost of their home.

Const. Cindy Chung said in a statement that the Toronto police hate crime unit has been notified.

The mezuzahs which were removed had been located outside units on the building’s penthouse floor. Residents reported that some were found on the ground while others were missing.

Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger, who lives on a lower floor in the building, said it feels like an invasion of his security.

“I feel sad and frightened,” said Leipciger in a phone interview on Friday.

“I’m very, very sorry that it happened and … disturbed because it’s not the only incident that bothers me.”

Earlier this month, police in the city asked for the public’s help in another suspected hate-motivated theft investigation after around 20 mezuzahs were stolen from a Toronto Seniors Housing Corporation apartment building at Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue West.

Police said they were called to that building on Dec. 7.

“For the second time in a month, seniors and Holocaust survivors in Toronto were the victims of another brazen antisemitic act, with mezuzahs torn down from their doorways,” said Josh Landau, director of government relations for Ontario at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in a statement.

“Law enforcement and governments at all levels must act with urgency to protect Canadians and ensure accountability for offenders.”

B’nai Brith Canada said the latest theft is “yet another incident of antisemitic hate in Toronto.”

“The increasing frequency of such disgusting acts speaks to the normalization of antisemitism in our society,” the organization said.

Police-reported hate crime statistics show that incidents targeting Toronto’s Jewish community have been on the rise.

In 2024, there were 177 anti-Jewish incidents reported to Toronto police, representing around 40 per cent of total reported hate crimes in the city that year.

That was up from 149 reported hate crimes targeting members of the Jewish community in 2023, and 65 in 2022.

Toronto police also said that anti-Jewish mischief-related incidents, such as graffiti and vandalism, represented one-third of total reported hate crimes in 2024.

On Friday, staff from the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto were on-site at the Finch and Bayview condo building to assist residents.

Leipciger said it’s important that law enforcement and government officials not only take these incidents seriously, but be “proactive rather than reactive” to prevent acts of hatred targeting the Jewish community.

“All the other incidents, whether they happened far off in (Australia’s) Bondi Beach or in the Netherlands, we are affected,” he said.

“We know that boundaries do not matter.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2025.