Last night at the Oscars, millions of Americans and Canadians watched a new commercial about antisemitism– little do they know it was filmed in Toronto’s very own Kensington Market.
The commercial was inspired by a bomb scare at a synagogue in Massachusetts on Oct. 14, 2023. The threat occurred after 1,200 people in Israel died due to the Hamas attack days earlier on Oct. 7.
Director Jon Weiman aimed for an entirely Canadian cast and setting to honour Holocaust survivors in Canada, including his late grandfather and Toronto educator Ernie Weiss, according to The Canadian Jewish News.
Most of the filming was done at the historic Kiever Synagogue on Jan. 17 in Kensington Market.
READ MORE: Toronto mayor calls for immediate ceasefire in Israel-Gaza war
Now Toronto reached out to the synagogue for comment but it did not respond in time of publication.
The commercial stars two of Toronto’s trusted rabbis in the Jewish community – rabbis Aviva Rajsky and Michael Dolgin.
Rajsky is well known in the city after singing the national anthem back at the Raptors game in 2019.
She’s also produced jazz albums, used to be a piano bar singer for several years, composes music, and conducts the choir at Congregation Habonim.
Although musically gifted, Rajsky was primarily selected to be in the commercial because she’s also the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, The Canadian Jewish News reports.
Rabbi Michael Dolgin was selected for a lead role because he conducted Weiman’s bar mitzvah around 25 years ago.
“When I was cast in a commercial sponsored by the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism to play a rabbi whose synagogue receives a bomb threat during a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, I found it was a familiar role,” Dolgin wrote in the National Post.
Dolgin is a rabbi at Temple Sinai, and is actively advocating for peace amongst what is happening in Gaza and how that’s affecting the Jewish community in Toronto.
New England Patriots owner and founder of the Foundation to Combat Anti-semitism, Robert Kraft, invested $25 million in the #StandUpToJewishHate campaign last March.
This ad was commissioned to be part of the campaign.
“The #StandUpToJewishHate campaign is designed to raise awareness for the fight against antisemitism, specifically among non-Jewish audiences and to help all Americans understand that there is a role for each of us to play in combating a problem that is unfortunately all too prevalent in communities across the country today,” Kraft said in a press release.
