'Someone was protecting us': Belleville's guest Rabbi Oded Peles on surviving the Yom Kippur attack and what's next

Israeli Rabbi Oded Peles was a few minutes late starting the Yom Kippur evening service in Belleville, Ont., on Sept. 20, because he paused to help two female congregants light extra candles outside the sanctuary.

Seconds later, a hail of bullets tore into the stained-glass windows beside the pulpit at Sons of Jacob synagogue, where Rabbi Peles would have been standing to lead the congregation in prayer.

Rabbi Peles was unharmed, and no one else in the building was injured.

Outside, as we now know, a 29-year-old former Canadian soldier armed with a shotgun—who’d been released from the Forces several years ago for reasons the military is not disclosing—opened fire, critically wounding a Belleville policeman stationed on duty for the High Holiday event. The policeman remains in hospital in critical but stable condition. The shooter died in hospital on Sept. 21, police said.

This was Rabbi Peles’s second year officiating at the small Canadian synagogue as a guest slot from his regular duties at a synagogue in Jerusalem. He praised the shaken community for continuing on with services as best as they could. He said he drew inspiration from the lessons of his father, who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Now he believes the response must go beyond prayer. He’s vowed to help strengthen the small Belleville Jewish community and draw attention to antisemitism, starting by building bridges of peace today in Rome at some previously scheduled interfaith meetings at the Vatican.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, we hear Rabbi Peles’s firsthand account of the attack, his reflections on faith and survival, and his hopes for what comes next. We’ll also hear from synagogue member Douglas Lobel, who’s been watching antisemitism grow in Belleville since Oct. 7, 2023, and warned city officials something like this could happen. Toronto’s Derek Kreindler also joins to explain why he launched a grassroots fundraising campaign to help support the wounded Belleville police officer, Const. Jeff Smith.

Related links:

Read more about growing antisemitism in the Belleville area and why the city’s mayor and councillors were warned such an attack could happen, in The CJN.

Learn more about donating to the Jewish community’s grass roots GoFundMe campaign to help wounded Belleville Const. Jeff Smith and his family.

A separate fundraiser is also underway now by Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, CIJA, and the Jewish Federations of Canada who have join