Parents of children in Canadian Jewish schools told The Jerusalem Post of their horror after discovering that the schools were aggressively singled out by a major newspaper on Thursday morning.
The influential French-language Canadian paper La Presse published an article about publicly subsidized Jewish private schools in Montreal hosting active or former Israeli soldiers as speakers.
The article’s main argument was that state-subsidized schools may be crossing into political advocacy by hosting Israeli military speakers during an ongoing war.
One example provided is that, in December 2024, Herzliah High School in Quebec welcomed Montreal native Noam Oliel-Sabbag, a serving IDF soldier, to speak about his “inspiring journey.”
“We are proud to highlight stories like Noam’s, which inspire and strengthen our community,” the school posted on Facebook.
La Presse then goes on to say that Oliel-Sabbag is one of many Israeli military personnel who received by publicly subsidized Jewish schools in the metropolitan area "during the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas" and that active or former members of the IDF have addressed students at Herzliah and Bialik schools in Côte-Saint-Luc at least 14 times since fall 2023.
La Presse notes IDF soldier visit happens over Gaza collapse
Tovia Roness, a combat doctor, spoke at Herzlia in April 2025. La Presse pointedly noted that this took place "while international organizations multiplied warnings about the risk of humanitarian collapse in Gaza."
La Presse also criticized Bialik schools for hosting former Israeli army sergeant major Jonny Daniels, "who denied that famine was affecting the Gaza Strip but whom Bialik described as a reliable source of information on the war."
Shockingly, La Presse also took fault with the schools for running activities "with Israeli and military themes," but actually were about commemorating October 7.
In November 2024, Herzliah and Bialik students participated in the activity “Survive to Tell VR.” They wore virtual reality headsets that recreated the events of October 7 using immersive on-the-ground footage. Students also heard testimony from Remo Salman El-Hozayel, whom Bialik described as “a courageous Israeli Muslim police officer who recounted his acts of bravery” on October 7.
It negatively referred to the events as trying to “improve Israel’s image abroad” by focusing on youth.
La Presse reported that these schools are subsidized by the Quebec government. For the 2023–2024 school year, the entity managing Herzliah and Talmud Torah received $4,439,431. The entity managing Bialik and JPPS elementary school received $3,459,335.
Quebec’s Ministry of Education told La Presse by email that “Private schools may determine the complementary activities they offer. However, public funding […] must be used solely for educational services." The Ministry then told La Presse that it will be investigating the schools to ensure "they comply with the law."
Bialik school, however, told La Presse that, although it is state-subsidized, the activities described by La Presse “were not part of activities covered by public funding" and that the presence of these speakers was part of an effort to commemorate the victims of the October 7 attacks.
“We believe it is normal for us to welcome individuals who can foster connections between our ancestral homeland and our youth,” the statement added.
It is also significant to note that the article's pictures feature school pupils with their faces blurred, yet no permission was given to use the photos.
'I am afraid,' parents tell Post
Parent A told the Post that they were in shock when they read the article.
"Not because the Jewish day schools invited past and present Israeli soldiers to talk to our kids, but because the irresponsible reporting and splashing of our schools all over the front page of a mainstream Quebec newspaper puts our children in grave danger," Parent A told the Post.
"My kids both go to one of these schools, and at 11 and 16, in their school uniforms, they walk to and from the bus, ride the city bus, walk home, and go to the mall. They are recognizable. They, and I, should not have to fear the antisemitic, anti-Zionist riffraff in Montreal. But I am afraid. Very afraid."
A grandparent of a Herzliah student told the Post that there is a feeling that there "is a war on our children."
"This article follows the one on Jewish summer camps. Our kids are being targeted and can be seriously harmed."
The grandparent pointed out that the schools' uniforms are clearly visible and put every Jewish child at risk.
"The Canadian government has definitely thrown us under the bus, and if you shoot at a Jewish school, expect to see the IDF."
Another Herzliah parent, Parent B, told the Post that they are "appalled" at the newspaper for allowing a "so-called journalist to publish an article which puts students attending the school at risk."
"We live in reactionary times, where such inflammatory articles can re-ignite attacks on our already vulnerable students."
"My reaction is horror," said Parent C. "First they are targeting our summer camps, now our schools, marking us as « zionists » in order to first intimidate, then ultimately purge us, and ultimately violence."
The Canadian Jewish organization CIJA said that, amidst "the growing threat of violent extremism and radical Islamists [...] it is irresponsible to publish a sensationalist dossier that resembles a witch hunt."
"For several months, Jewish schools in Quebec have been subject to misleading allegations, particularly stemming from a video disseminated by activist Yves Engler. Seeing La Presse join in this dynamic by presenting, from a military angle, cultural and athletic extracurricular activities, funded without public funds and comparable to those organized in many schools, contributes to fueling conspiracy theories targeting the Jewish community."
CIJA added that Israel is a democracy where national service is mandatory, and it is therefore "absurd" to claim that an Israeli who has served their country cannot participate in cultural exchanges in Montreal, especially since the Israeli forces maintain official ties with the Canadian Armed Forces.
This comes just a week after anti-Israel groups in Canada encouraged protest action against Jewish camps for their “explicit support for the Israeli military” and “genocide.”
“When children’s camps support a genocidal state, it’s time for gigantic change,” the groups (including Canada BDS) wrote in a joint statement last week.
Additionally, in December 2025, the website that previously published a list of all Canadian citizens who served in the IDF published a new list of Jewish institutions associated with them.
GTA to IDF, referring to the Greater Toronto Area, was created by Davide Mastracci, who released the Find IDF Soldiers site in February, and lists institutions such as summer camps, schools, and synagogues that are "associated with IDF soldiers."
“Publishing a directory of Jewish schools, community centers, and communal organizations framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous,” Austin Parcels, manager of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada, told The Jerusalem Post at the time. “It becomes a catalogue for hostile actors who are looking for targets.
“These are Jewish organizations. Treating that basic fact as if it reveals something hidden or corrupt is an attempt to manufacture suspicion around Jewish identity itself. When you turn the most elementary fact of Jewish identity into suspicion, you are not revealing anything. You are giving people who want to harm Jewish institutions the ammunition they are looking for.”
Anna Ahronheim contributed to this article.