A Brief History
On August 16, 1933, antisemitism reared its ugly head in Toronto, Canada, famous for being a nice city. Known as the “Christie Pits riot” after the playground in which it occurred; the incident was not unique in Toronto.
Digging Deeper
Toronto was a mostly White, British derived city with Jewish people making up the largest minority. Previous riots had taken place in 1875 against Catholics and in 1918 against Greek immigrants.
Not just anti-Jewish, the Anglo rioters also railed against Italians. The setting had been a baseball game with a team of Jews and Italians against a team of Anglo descent. Recent protests by Jewish residents against local discrimination and antisemitism in Germany at the time resulted in backlash against Jewish residents and the formation of “Swastika Clubs,” a blatant reference to German politics. Despite many dozens of people injured in the fights, no one was killed, with only one rioter of 10,000 convicted.
Note: See our many articles about all sorts of riots.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Have you ever witnessed a riot?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Levitt, Cyril and William Shafir. The Riot at Christie Pits. New Jewish Press, 2018.
Robinson, Ira. A History of Antisemitism in Canada. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2022.
