When Laya Witty arrived for early morning Shabbat services at Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue in Thornhill this past Saturday March 7, she noticed a police car parked at the entrance. Within moments, she learned why: overnight, gunfire had shattered the synagogue’s glass front doors.

Witty says she was relieved no one was hurt, and then she swung into action as a volunteer with the synagogue’s security team–screening guests and looking for unfamiliar faces.

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, reached out personally on Monday to her synagogue’s senior rabbi, Daniel Korobkin as well as to Rabbi Sam Taylor from the other targeted congregation, Shaarei Shomayim synagogue, and Rabbi Debra Landsberg of Temple Emanu-El, to express his concern and support.

On today’s episode of The Canadian Jewish News‘ “North Star” podcast, Laya Witty joins host Ellin Bessner to share how it felt when attackers hit her place of worship, and why she fears eventually someone will get killed.

Related stories:

Read The CJN’s comprehensive coverage of the week of gunfire against Jewish businesses and synagogues: beginning with Temple Emanu-El and a restaurant and education academy shot at on March 2 .
Hear what it sounded like on the ground last weekend at the BAYT and also at Shaarei Shomayim, on The CJN’s North Star Podcast.
Read what the politicians and the police promised on March 8, in The CJN. ****

Credits

Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )
Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
Music: Bret Higgins

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