I have never been more ashamed to be a Canadian Jew
Mathematical proof that our views are largely terrible.
Provocative headline, but unfortunately well-merited. JSpaceCanada, who label themselves a “pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish Zionist charity” that “champion a two-state solution”, have released their annual survey of the Canadian Jewish population, conducted back in November 2025 in concert with the New Israel Fund of Canada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now.
The results of this poll are, to put it mildly, grim. The Canadian Jewish community is largely supportive of Israel’s violence against Palestinians, and opposes efforts to restrict that violence in any material fashion. While I do not share these views, I cannot deny that a majority of my own people have declared themselves collectively through these poll results to lack a fundamental sense of morals and character.
The only conclusion I can draw from such results is that we have spent too much time trying to appeal to the emotions of terrible people who support human suffering. We have restricted assistance to Palestine based on the feelings of Canadian Jews, who have just said with their whole chest that there is essentially nothing Palestinians are allowed to do other than die quietly.
Fuck that, and fuck every member of my community who feels this way.
Before we rip into these results too viciously, let’s go over methodology. This survey was conducted by Léger, a Canadian market research and polling firm, using an online survey. The fundamental question about this methodology is that online samples, as opposed to a probability sample, are not random, which presents the opportunity for sample bias.
Research does show, however, that this does not make online samples inherently useless, and that when conducted well, they can still have a respectable level of accuracy. In this case, 502 respondents completed the survey, qualifying by indicating they are Jewish and voted in the 2025 Canadian federal election.
Weights were then applied on the basis of age, gender, region, religious/secular status, educational status, and denominational affiliation, attempting to map the sample onto the actual distribution of Canadian Jews across the country. Overall, there are no glaring issues with methodology that would make me suspect the results of this survey to be inaccurate; I do believe, as JSpaceCanada says, that these are the sincere views of the Canadian Jewish community.
And the fact that these views are sincere is what fills me with so much disgust and shame towards my own people, feelings that I know as a Jew can be dangerous to express to the wider public, and yet feelings that I know I have a responsibility to share anyway. Gentiles need to understand that there is no justification for my fellow Canadian Jews to hold these perspectives, and that it’s not antisemitic to criticize us when we espouse this stupidity.
On the topic of Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7th, respondents were asked to pick one of six descriptors as the “closest description”, three which justify the actions, and three which criticize the actions. Over three-quarters of Canadian Jews picked a descriptor that justifies Israel’s violence, calling it “self-defence”, “hostage return”, or simply “war”. Merely 24% picked “war crimes”, “ethnic cleansing”, or “genocide”.
When asked more bluntly whether Israel “is or was committing genocide against the Palestinians”, just 17% of our people agreed, while a damning 71% denied that the intentional campaign of starvation and extermination was true. On the topic of who was responsible for the famine in Gaza, an absurd 48% of respondents blame Hamas, with 19% blaming “the war” or ”both sides”, and a disgusting 13% saying “I don’t believe there was famine or widespread hunger in Gaza”.
Only 17% of us accept the evidence of our eyes and our ears, that the Israeli government explicitly said they would impose a “complete siege” on Gaza, that there will be “no electricity, no food, no fuel”, that they are “fighting human animals and acting accordingly”, and then the Israelis proceeded to do exactly that, slaughtering at least 70,000 Palestinians who are confirmed to be dead, and likely hundreds of thousands who are buried beneath the rubble and cannot have their bodies dug out to be identified.
57% of Canadian Jews believe Israel is at least “mostly” a democracy, when millions of Palestinians living under Israeli rule are not allowed to vote and are subject to military justice versus civilian courts and literally have to use separate fucking roads solely because of their race.
In a split sample experiment, where half the sample was presented actions Canada could take against Israel (Subsample 1), and the other half were given those same actions but paired with actions against Palestine (Subsample 2). This experiment, however, did not significantly shift the numbers in these questions; Canadian Jews largely oppose any action against Israel, and largely support action against Palestine.
52% of Canadian Jews claim they support a two-state solution, but when Mark Carney does the token effort of recognizing Palestine as a state, only 24% of subsample 1 and 22% of subsample 2 actually supported the act in practice. In subsample 2, 71% of Canadian Jews say we should increase humanitarian aid to Israel, where food and medicine are plenty, while just 49% say Canada should increase aid to the injured and starving Palestinians in Gaza; aid to Gaza is just one point lower, 48%, in subsample 1.
When asked how important it is for Canadian Jews to support various groups, 57% said we should all support the Israeli government, and 59% agreed we should support “Pro-Israel ‘Hasbara’ groups that work to protect Israel’s image”, an explicit support for what the world rightfully decries as cynical propaganda efforts.
64% of Canadian Jews believe that Canada should not intervene in “internal” Israeli affairs, despite Israel considering Palestine “internal”. 50% of Canadian Jews disagree that Canada should be more critical of Benjamin Netanyahu, with only 39% agreeing. And 81% of Canadian Jews think Canada should focus less on “Israeli politics”, and more on “antisemitism”.
Overall, the tone is consistent: “stop criticizing Israel, support everything they do, and oppose Palestine in every material way”. These views come from a moderately diverse background of Canadian Jews, mainly those 25 years and older, exactly 50/50 between men and women (no nonbinary respondents), 62% of whom describe themselves from centre-left to centre-right, with varying degrees of religiosity.
As such, it is hard to claim that there is a single problem spot in our community; this attitude appears to be pervasive. All of us, regardless of our political ideology and our religiosity, have been raised in a culture where Israel is portrayed and viewed in a fundamentally warped perspective. We are a minority in this poll, because breaking out of this kind of childhood conditioning is an exception from the norm.
With only 3% of survey respondents being in the 18-24 age bracket, I do question the applicability of these results to that particular generation; they’ve had a larger exposure through social media to the unfiltered realities of Israeli war crimes than my peer group did.
At the same time, I recognize this is likely just an attempt to delude myself from the reality of things. What indication do any of us have that the next generation of Canadian Jews will feel any differently from their parents, given the extent to which the community pushes us on the Zionist path?
And more importantly, why the fuck is the freedom of the Palestinian people dependent upon Jews feeling comfortable? In the shadow of MLK Day, I see that Canadian Jews have become the very white moderate that Martin Luther King decried, wagging our finger while we insist on negative peace over positive justice, setting the timetable at which we will allow another man’s freedom.
Our feelings as Canadian Jews do not matter. Palestinian lives matter. Canadian society needs to stop taking our feelings into account when it comes to Israel and Palestine, because our feelings only serve to block support for the Palestinian people as they resist the genocide perpetuated by Israel.
I’m thankful that JSpaceCanada, NIFC, and CFPN funded and conducted this survey among Canadian Jews; it is important to know the honest perspectives of our community.
But unfortunately? These results are damning for our community…and they make me ashamed to be part of our number.
I should have added that I never categorize friends and acquaintances by religion. Nobody is genetically a jew or a catholic or a muslim or a buddhist . People often self-describe themselves as such, but they are really just demonstrating that they subscribe to a list of beliefs. You share some religious beliefs with others that claim to share similar beliefs and are committing genocide. Their beliefs and your beliefs are clearly not identical, and their behaviour sickens you (as it should). It does not reflect on you, though, and you in no way share responsibility for such heinous barbarism.
You'd understand this better than I, but I expect this is because our Jewish kids are all brain-washed during their youth. They are then resistant to contrary information and opinions that might cause them to adjust their thinking. It's terribly sad.