The Globe and Mail
· collected 2026-09-25 · by Greg Mercer, Photography by David LeClair
As the volunteer president of the only synagogue serving a rural stretch of mid-eastern Ontario, Norman Weddum is used to taking on a lot of job responsibilities.
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Weddum → serve → responsibilities
This week, he added a new, grim task to his to-do list: fix two dozen bullet holes in the large, technicolour stained glass window depicting the 12 Tribes of Israel, or the ancient lineage of the Jewish people.
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he → add → people
“I need to find a craftsman who knows how to repair that type of stuff,” he told The Globe and Mail.
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he → need → Globe
I need to clean it up.”
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I → need → it
At sundown on Sunday, the small congregation of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ont., was settling in for Yom Kippur services when gunfire erupted outside.
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gunfire → settle → services
At first, Mr. Weddum thought it was firecrackers or a car backfiring, and went into the lobby to look at the street.
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it → think → street
Realizing what was happening, he ran back inside, slammed the doors behind him and told everyone to get on the floor of the sanctuary.
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he → realize → sanctuary
Bullets began flying over their heads as police engaged in the fierce gun battle with Sean Ward, a former member of the Canadian military, who had come prepared to carry out a mass-casualty attack, armed with multiple firearms, ammunition and gasoline, investigators said.
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investigators → begin → firearms
The gunman, who was caught on video shouting “you are going to die for the Jews,” was killed in the firefight and a Belleville Police officer, Constable Jeff Smith, was critically injured.
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officer → catch → firefight
The gunman, filmed shouting outside the synagogue, had come with several weapons designed to cause mass carnage, police said.
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police → film → carnage
(Video contains graphic content.)
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Video → contain → content
Three days later, board members of Sons of Jacob gathered here for the first time since the shooting, shared hugs and got back to the business of running their synagogue during what’s normally the holiest time in the Jewish calendar.
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what → gather → calendar
Though shaken by questions about what would have happened if the gunman had breached their door, they say they will continue to gather to celebrate their faith, just as they always have.
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they → shake → faith
But we’re going to pick up the pieces and we’re going to start over and we’re going to carry on.
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we → go → pieces
We will not be stopped by this person, or anybody else,” Mr. Weddum said.
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Weddum → stop → person
Mr. Weddum, semi-retired at 70 and managing the synagogue in between shifts as an usher at the local hockey rink, says the threat of violence has become a reality for Jewish organizations in 2026, even in the smallest of communities in Canada.
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threat → manage → Canada
With no paid staff, there is little money in the Sons of Jacob budget to hire off-duty police or private security, but those things have become essential, he said.
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he → pay → police
Constable Smith was on-duty Sunday and assigned to protect the building as part of a long-running partnership with the Belleville police.
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Smith → assign → police
Sunday’s attack is a dramatic escalation of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish people in Canada, and has fuelled calls for a national response.
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attack → target → response
More than two dozen reports of gunfire, arson, window-breaking and other types of vandalism have been documented at synagogues, Jewish schools and institutions across Canada in the past three years, according to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.
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reports → document → Israel
While most of those have happened in larger urban centres, the Belleville shooting casts a spotlight on the vulnerability of the country’s smallest Jewish communities.
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shooting → happen → communities
“We always have police protection,” Mr. Weddum said.
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Weddum → have → protection
“Every synagogue in North America on the high holidays has police protection.
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synagogue → have → protection
We’ve been doing it for years.
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We → do → years
That’s just a sign of the times.”
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That → ’ → times
On Thursday, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said federal funds will be used to improve security at the synagogue, but didn’t elaborate.
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funds → say → synagogue
The synagogue has also started a $90,000 GoFundMe campaign to help rebuild and protect the building.
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synagogue → start → building
The members of Sons of Jacob, meanwhile, say they’re reflecting on their past this week, and the determination of previous generations of Jewish people who resettled in the Belleville area.
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who → say → area
“When you’re Jewish, you look to the history of your people,” Shima Viggoda, Sons of Jacob’s vice-president, told The Globe.
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Viggoda → ’re → Globe
“The people who came here were Holocaust survivors.
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who → come → ?
They escaped Czarist Russia.
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They → escape → Russia
They came to make a better life in this country, just as every Jewish community across this country.”
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They → come → country
Belleville’s tiny Jewish community has persevered for well over a century.
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community → persevere → century
In the late 1800s, this railway stop halfway between Toronto and Montreal attracted Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, who faced barriers in traditional professions and trades but found work as furriers and peddlers.
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who → attract → furriers
In 1905, a handful of families began holding religious ceremonies at a rooming house for travelling Jewish workers, laying the early roots for the Sons of Jacob congregation, according to the synagogue’s own historical records.
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handful → begin → records
By 1956, when the current synagogue opened on a leafy residential street, the area’s Jewish community included some of its most prominent merchants, but also plenty of blue-collar families.
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community → open → families
They raised the money to build their new place of worship in part through bingo games, hosted at an ice cream parlour where the main attraction was two domesticated bears.
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attraction → raise → parlour
At its peak, the Sons of Jacob had a thriving congregation of more than 55 families, with its own Hebrew school, rabbi and shochet, a specially trained kosher butcher.
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Sons → have → school
The synagogue was a bustling hub for fundraising dances, bazaars, lectures and Bar Mitzvah ceremonies.
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synagogue → bustle → dances
As many younger people left for larger cities, however, the membership dwindled.
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membership → leave → cities
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
