Today marks the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and extermination camp, by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed January 27 as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.
According to the most recent data available from the Berman Jewish DataBank, there were 17,300 Jewish Holocaust survivors living in Canada in 2011. This would account for over one-quarter (28.2%) of the 60,835 Canadians aged 65 years and older who identified their religion as Judaism.
Approximately 335,000 people reported being Jewish in 2021, little change from 2001 (330,000 people). While some people reported their religion as Jewish, some reported Jewish as their ethnic or cultural origin.
Although the Jewish-Canadian community is relatively small in number, it is the most targeted religious group according to data on police-reported hate crimes in Canada, accounting for over half (57%) of religiously motivated crimes in 2021.
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).