CBC journalist accosted outside Yom Kippur service and Americans are outraged: ‘Try this in Florida and you go to jail’
- CBC National Radio News reader Neil Herland shared on social media his experience of being intimidated by protesters while attending a Yom Kippur service in Toronto, expressing fear of rising antisemitism in Canada and considering leaving the country.
- Florida Congressman Randy Fine responded to Herland’s post by highlighting a Florida law he sponsored that punishes such intimidation with up to five years in prison, emphasizing a zero-tolerance stance against Muslim terror.
- The incident sparked wider concern and condemnation, with figures like columnist Kyle Smith and the U.S. Israel Education Association stressing the dangers of unchecked antisemitism and the need to stand against hatred and intimidation of Jewish communities.
- Herland’s post followed a recent shooting attack outside a synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, and reflects a broader pattern of antisemitic violence and intimidation targeting synagogues and Jewish sites in the Greater Toronto Area over recent years.
A social media post by CBC National Radio News Reader Neil Herland has been widely shared, with some outraged responses from outside the country.
Herland had recounted the intimidation he faced when trying to enter a building to attend a Yom Kippur service in Toronto on Monday night, adding that he may have to leave Canada amid rising antisemitism.
“On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building,” he wrote in a post on X, where he identifies himself as a journalist and a Jew.
Florida Congressman Randy Fine, a Republican, responded yesterday, noting: “Try this in Florida, and you go to prison for five years.”
He added: “Proud to have sponsored the bill to make that happen.”
Try this in Florida, and you go to prison for five years. Proud to have sponsored the bill to make that happen.
Muslim terror is not welcome here. https://t.co/ma4ayUQY4v
— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) September 22, 2026
Meanwhile, Kyle Smith, a columnist, novelist and film critic for the Wall Street Journal, asked simply: “How did we let it get this bad for Jews?”
And the X account of the U.S. Israel Education Association posted: “We have seen where unchecked hatred can lead. History has taught us that silence in the face of antisemitism comes at a terrible cost.”
The group added: “On Yom Kippur, Jews should never have to face intimidation simply for walking into a synagogue to pray. We cannot normalize this. We cannot look away. And we cannot allow hatred of Jews to manifest itself in our communities unchecked. We stand with you!”
We have seen where unchecked hatred can lead. History has taught us that silence in the face of antisemitism comes at a terrible cost.
On Yom Kippur, Jews should never have to face intimidation simply for walking into a synagogue to pray.
We cannot normalize this. We cannot…
— U.S. Israel Education Association (USIEA) (@USIEducation) September 22, 2026
Herland’s post came a day after a synagogue came under attack in Belleville, Ont., a city about two hours to the east.
Herland’s post shows a group of about 20 people milling about, blowing horns and waving Palestinian flags in front of the Meridian Arts Centre at Yonge and Sheppard, where The Song Shul holds annual events to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement. The synagogue doesn’t have its own building but rents different locations to hold services.
“My late father was an Austrian Jew who survived the Holocaust in Romania,” Herland wrote. “And came to Canada as a refugee. This year I got an Austrian passport, in case Canada becomes unsafe for me as a Jew. I fear that moment is approaching, here in Canada and elsewhere.”
The Belleville shooting happened Sunday night outside a synagogue in the city of 55,000, where worshipers had gathered to mark Yom Kippur. Const. Jeff Smith, a nearly 13-year veteran of the Belleville Police Service, was in critical but stable condition after exchanging gunfire with a shooter outside the building. No one else was injured in the attack. The gunman later died in a hospital.
“Jewish Canadians are living in a parallel world,” Herland wrote in his post. “Where police stand guard with guns outside synagogues. And Jewish schools, religious sites and businesses are targeted with bullets. And most Canadians have no awareness or understanding.”
Multiple synagogues in Ontario, and specifically the Greater Toronto Area, have been targeted in shooting attacks in recent years. In March, three GTA synagogues were struck by gunfire in the space of five days — Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto in Thornhill, and Temle Emanu-el and Shaarei Shomayim in North York. York Regional Police have charged three suspects in connection with two of the shootings.