Canadian Website Publishes List Linking IDF Veterans to Jewish Institutions, Prompting Sharp Backlash
New website claims to publish names of Canadian IDF soldiers and the schools, synagogues, camps, and other places they attended. Anger and fear pervade the community as families are exposed to potential harassment and threats.
A Canadian website that previously published the names of Canadians who served in the Israel Defense Forces has now released a second database identifying the schools, synagogues, summer camps, and community institutions those individuals attended. Jewish leaders across Canada say the project is dangerous, stigmatizing, and part of a troubling rise in antisemitism.
The new database, “GTA to IDF,” compiles seven institutions in the Greater Toronto Area associated with at least four individuals who appear in the earlier “Find IDF Soldiers” list. Both projects were created by journalist Davide Mastracci, whose February 2025 database drew significant criticism for doxxing Canadians and exposing them to potential harassment. Mastracci says all his information is drawn from public sources and denies any intent to encourage targeting.
The institutions named include Associated Hebrew Schools, Bnei Akiva Schools, TanenbaumCHAT, Camp Moshava Ennismore, Camp Ramah in Canada, Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT), and Shaarei Shomayim. The list highlights each organization’s public statements about Israel, programming connected to the Jewish state, and the number of former students or congregants later found in the IDF database.
Jewish leaders say the premise is misleading and the consequences potentially severe.
“Jewish institutions and communities in Canada have been shot at, fire-bombed, their windows smashed, marked with Nazi imagery, and subjected to sustained intimidation,” said Austin Parcels, Manager of Research and Advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada. “Publishing a directory of Jewish schools and communal organizations framed as if their ties to Israel are incriminating is inciting and dangerous. It becomes a catalogue for hostile actors looking for targets.”
He added that treating basic elements of Jewish identity as suspicious “gives people who want to harm Jewish institutions the ammunition they are looking for.”
Security analysts note that the information, even if publicly available, can be weaponized in an era of heightened polarization. Canadian Jewish institutions have faced historic levels of harassment since October 2023, including vandalism, threats, and attempted arson. Many have spent heavily on reinforced security.
Critics also stress that serving in the IDF is legal for Canadian dual nationals and that mapping Jewish institutions based on where former soldiers once studied or prayed “echoes tactics historically used to stigmatize Jewish communities.”
The Maple, which published the database, argues that the project simply identifies “associations” and does not make claims about wrongdoing. But community advocates say the effect is unmistakable: the construction of a public list linking Jewish organizations to Israeli military activity, presented in a way that casts ordinary communal life under suspicion.
Experts warn the precedent could reach beyond the Jewish community. If institutions can be profiled solely because of former attendees, they argue, it creates a path to chilling participation in religious, cultural, or educational spaces.
As antisemitism in Canada remains at record highs, Jewish organizations say this latest database adds fuel to an already volatile climate. The debate over the project’s motives is likely to continue, but its impact is already being felt across a community on edge.