Two Jewish-owned bakeries damaged in suspected hate-motivated attacks: Toronto police
- Two Jewish-owned Kiva’s Bagel Bar locations in Toronto were attacked on the morning of July 26, 2026, with one location subjected to gunfire and both having broken windows; no injuries were reported.
- Toronto Police are investigating the incidents as potential hate crimes, with involvement from the hate crime unit and guns and gangs unit, while determining if the attacks are connected.
- Jewish community leaders and politicians condemned the attacks as targeted antisemitic hate crimes, calling for stronger law enforcement actions rather than mere statements or task forces.
- The incidents highlight a broader concern about rising antisemitism and violent extremism in Canada, sparking demands for increased community safety measures and unequivocal leadership against hate.
Jewish community voices are reprising their warnings of intensifying and unchecked antisemitism in Toronto after two Jewish-owned bakery and restaurant chain locations were damaged in separate incidents Sunday morning, one by gunfire.
The Toronto Police Service said the first occurred at 8:12 a.m. at a business near the intersection of Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue, where police found a broken window and evidence that shots were fired.
The second occurred approximately 18 minutes later at the chain’s Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue location, where officers found a broken window but no evidence of shots fired.
Police said nobody was injured in either and that hate crime unit officers are investigating both. The guns and gangs unit is also assisting in the first.
“At this time, investigators are examining whether the incidents are connected and working to identify those responsible,” TPS wrote on X.
Police didn’t specify which chain was targeted, but several users on X, including Avi Benlolo, founding chairman and CEO of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), identified it as Kiva’s Bagel Bar on St. Clair and their bakery and restaurant on Steeles.
AGPI CONDEMNS ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS ON KIVA’S RESTAURANT
The Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) condemns this morning’s antisemitic hate-crime attacks against two Toronto locations of Kiva’s Bakery and Restaurant.
Toronto Police reported that a window at Kiva’s Bagel Bar near… https://t.co/xFkze0qOXa
— Avi Abraham Benlolo (@AviBenlolo) July 26, 2026
“From AGPI’s perspective, there is no ambiguity: targeting two locations of the same Jewish-owned business constitutes an antisemitic hate crime,” he said in a statement.
“Jewish businesses, schools and synagogues have been repeatedly targeted. This escalating campaign of intimidation and violence is intolerable.”
Toronto MP Melissa Lantsman pushed back against the idea it was a “coincidence” and called it “a targeted campaign of intimidation on one community.”
Canada, she wrote on X, “needs to wake up to the hatred metastasizing in its streets” and that the Jewish community wants action in the form of arrests and prosecutions, not sympathy.
When a Jewish-owned business gets hit twice, it’s not coincidence, it’s a targeted campaign of intimidation on one community. Synagogues, schools, and Jewish businesses come under attack again and again.
This country needs to wake up to the hatred metastasizing in its streets.… https://t.co/xgvW8GLCzJ
— Melissa Lantsman (@MelissaLantsman) July 26, 2026
“Toothless bills, thoughts and prayers and more statements don’t quell a community’s anxiety, they just insult it. Task forces don’t act. No more councils that don’t speak up. Just do the results part. Enforce the law. “
Liberal Toronto MP Leslie Church called Kiva’s “beloved local deli” that’s “part of our community.
“I share our whole community’s anger at seeing more violent, antisemitic incidents in Toronto,” she wrote on X. “Gunfire at a Jewish-owned business is criminal and vile in every respect.”
The Centre of Israel and Jewish Affairs said the attacks “come amid a broader rise in violent extremism across Canada and other Western democracies — a toxic brew of antizionist rhetoric, local criminal elements, Iranian-backed proxies, and ISIS-inspired terrorism.”
“Our leaders must be unequivocal: nothing justifies attacks on Canadians,” they wrote on X.
The UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, meanwhile, said the Jewish Security Network had liaised with police and “deployed resources to both affected locations.”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow denounced the “targeted attacks” as “vile and unacceptable.”
“We all have a responsibility to stand against hate. I will always stand with Toronto’s Jewish community against antisemitism,” she added on X. “We will continue to invest in community safety and the necessary work of confronting hate wherever it exists.”
Aviva Klompas, co-founder of Boundless, a think-tank dedicated to educating groups about Israel and combatting antisemitism, responded to the news on X by saying “It is open season on Canadian Jews… and Chow is utterly disinterested.”
“Shame on every official that is issuing useless statements of concern while allowing violence to escalate.”
🚨 Two Jewish businesses were shot at in Toronto today.
Two locations of the Jewish-owned Kiva’s Bagel Bar were targeted – one at Yonge & St. Clair and another at Bathurst & Steeles. At least one location was struck by gunfire.
It is open season on Canadian Jews and Toronto…
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) July 26, 2026