Israel’s Independence Day fell on April 22 this year, and that meant a midday party in downtown Montreal Wednesday, with more than 2,000 people spending a few hours dancing at Place du Canada.
Under the theme of “We’re Dancing Again,” the Yom ha-Atzmaut party kicked off with Cantor Adam Stotland strumming his guitar and leading the crowd in Israeli tunes before rapper headliner Westside Gravy took the stage to throngs of adoring fans.
“We’re celebrating. We’re dancing in celebration first that all the hostages came home,” rally co-chair and organizer Michael Druckman told The CJN, as students clad in Israeli and Canadian flags sang and danced. “Alive and dead, all of them came home and so it was important for us to mark this. That’s what this is all about. It’s a celebration.”
Notably different this year was a shorter speakers’ roster, which typically features many politicians and dignitaries. Instead, this year’s lineup featured a video address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, a community welcome by Côte Saint-Luc Mayor David Tordjman, and an address by Federation CJA vice-chair Samantha Mintz Vineberg. That was it for words from the stage, as the day was devoted more to the driving Israeli and Jewish rhythms.
Indeed, Tordjman was the only politician speaking in person, tasked with welcoming various communities represented that day in a speech delivered in English, French, Hebrew and peppered with a few lines of Farsi. The observant Sephardi Jew, the first to lead a municipal council in Quebec, recognized what he called deep and lasting friendships connecting the Jewish community with others in greater Montreal over decades.
“It’s truly inspiring to see representatives from so many communities standing together in unity: Chinese, Philippine, Italian, Greek, Persian, Jamaican, Irish and Ukrainian communities, your presence today is important, it is significant and it is appreciated,” he told the crowd, before taking a moment to address “our friends in the Iranian community who are with us today.”
“Your presence has profound significance and reflects the shared values of mutual respect and enduring bonds that unite our peoples. Our histories are intertwined, going back thousands of years to ancient Persia. Today, that spirit of friendship continues, right here in Montreal, as we stand side by side, strengthening the bonds between our communities. Our friendship is enduring, and together we will build a bright future.”
While the joyful mood reigned from the moment the first of 48 school buses unloaded passengers alongside the iconic square in the shadow of Montreal’s Mary Queen of the World Cathedral, a group of anti-Israel protesters amassed in the park on the north side of Montreal’s René Levesque Blvd. an hour before the party started.
Separated from the rally by five lanes of traffic, a dozen police vehicles, dozens of officers and private security, almost 100 demonstrators – including several members of the Jewish fringe group Neturei Karta —chanted slogans of “Globalize the intifada,” “Any resistance is justified when people are occupied,” “Israel no more” and “Go back to Europe.”
The group shouted denunciations of Israel alongside a display of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir hung in bloody effigy next to a poster depicting a caricature of Orthodox Jews.
Palestinian protests, with Israeli politicians hung in effigy, at the Montreal Yom ha-Atzmaut celebration, April 22, 2026. (Credit: Joel Ceausu)
CIJA-Quebec’s contingent posted, “While Israel’s enemies do not hesitate to publicly chant slogans calling for its destruction and the genocide of Jews on their ancestral land, it is essential to celebrate its independence.”
While Yom ha-Atzmaut revelers across the street largely ignored them, a couple of dozen people, including a contingent of Iranian-Montrealers sporting Israeli and Iranian Lion and Sun flags with various pro-Shah banners, stood at the park’s edge to shout back at demonstrators.
There were more protesters than last year, but less than a few years prior, which saw marked spikes in turnout to vilify Israel and Jews in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel. Last year there were significantly fewer as the event took place not downtown but north of the core in Côte-des-Neiges, and coincided with May Day, when Montreal police and the city are overwhelmed by mass confrontations with police, widespread unrest and vandalism. Last year, only a few dozen protesters showed up, notably standing outside a school for special needs children shouting obscenities.
Back at Place du Canada on Wednesday, organizer Druckman was nothing but pleased. “I get so busy every year running around making sure everything is getting done.” It’s months in the planning, weeks in execution, and he, his volunteers and contractors are there all morning setting up. “Then all of a sudden, I turn around and see that the park is full, thousands of people already here, grabbing flags, ready to party. That’s my highlight today and every year,” he said, taking particular joy in seeing Iranian-Montrealers turn out in force to celebrate Israel.
The Jewish Unity Partnership which stages the event, has done so for some 24 years, when Montreal businessman and community activist Amos Sochaczevski first organized a rally in the weeks after a terrorist attack that killed 30 Israelis and injured more than 140 at a Passover seder in Netanya in 2002.
The event continues to be run by a committee of volunteers, still led by Sochaczevski, in partnership with the city of Montreal for permitting and event infrastructure, and with security provided by three levels of law enforcement, private security and Federation CJA.
Indeed, Place du Canada was ringed by dozens of SPVM officers on bicycles, horseback and foot patrols, with more than a dozen police vehicles, Special Intervention Squads on standby, Sureté du Québec tactical officers positioned off-site, and plainclothes RCMP officers in the park. Private security roamed the grounds, while Federation’s Community Security Network stood vigil on the perimeter.
“Remember, just a few weeks ago the (Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre) warned of a realistic possibility of a mass casualty attack against Jews,” said Druckman, as children ran across the park wrapped in oversized flags trailing them in a flurry of blue and white to fetch armfuls of Bissli from the snack stand.
And this 78th Independence Day, the largest one outside Israel actually on Yom ha-Atzmaut, “was done on a weekday,” said 81-year-old Chaim, happily gesturing towards the crowds while leaning on his walker beside a tree. “And in the morning, davka (against expectation).”
None of those threats, nor the sadness and bittersweet tones that marked the preceding days of Yom ha-Shoah and Yom ha-Zikaron permeated the crowd, nor in the message from Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
In his recorded address broadcast on a large screen as the crowd stood silent, Herzog said as president of the world’s only Jewish state, “a modern-day miracle and incredible democracy in our ancient homeland, I have one message to Jews around the world. Hold your heads up high.”
Jews celebrated a declaration of independence 78 years ago, said Herzog, and rejoiced at the idea “of a singular nation, a real state for the Jewish people.” Nearly eight decades after what he called “that radical moment in Jewish history, we celebrate facts. We celebrate a reality we were fortunate to build. We celebrate a dream that was realized. We celebrate an incredible nation. Together, we’ve earned the right to toast what we’ve created and what we’ve accomplished as a nation and as a people.”
Herzog insisted this pride doesn’t negate the heartbreak and sorrow of war, antisemitism sweeping the globe and the weight of uncertainty in the region.
“Our courage to ask questions. Our willingness to name heartbreak. Our readiness to call out injustice. Our ability to rise from tragedy and keep rebuilding and rebuilding” is what Israel is all about, said Herzog, to enthusiastic cheers from the audience. “It is not only the fulfillment of an age-old dream, but a platform for designing our own future together based on our own values, traditions, and heritage.”
Israel, he declared “is home for a vibrant, creative, and resilient people prepared to bear the blessing and the responsibility of sovereignty. The blessing and responsibility for our beloved Jewish democratic state of Israel.”
When Federation’s Samantha Mintz Vineberg took to the podium, she told the crowd a strong Israel means a strong Jewish Diaspora, and vice versa. “That relationship, this partnership, is what keeps our people strong.”
“What happens in Israel does not stay in Israel. When sirens sound in Jerusalem, we feel them here. When pain hits the south, it reaches us here. When Israel rises up, we rise up with it. Because we are linked. Indestructible. And here in Montreal, that connection becomes responsibility. It is on us to stand up, to show up to act.”
She lauded students on the front lines, “standing on campuses where your identity is being challenged. And yet you show up. You speak out. You stand tall.” It wasn’t long ago that she was on those same campuses, experiencing “those same moments of pressure and pride, and I remember the importance of having a community by my side. To have organizations like Hillel to connect and remind me that I was never alone. And today, that same support exists for you.
“This is our moment,” said Mintz Vineberg. “Not to be silent, but to be strong. Not to step back, but to step forward. Because the power of this community has always been this: when one of us stands, we all stand.”
Joel has spent his entire adult life scribbling. For two decades, he freelanced for more than a dozen North American and European trade publications, writing on home decor, HR, agriculture, defense technologies and more. Having lived at 14 addresses in and around Greater Montreal, for 17 years he worked as reporter for a local community newspaper, covering the education, political and municipal beats in seven cities and boroughs. He loves to bike, swim, watch NBA and kvetch about politics.