Thomas Froese
A Jewish man looks towards the camera at a recent pro-Palestinian rally in New York.
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 3, 2026)
NEW YORK – Nobody really needs a definition for courage, but Noah Webster wrote something especially lively in his classic 1828 dictionary.
He called courage “that quality of mind which enables people to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without fear or depression of spirits.”
Add to that, when you see the real deal, you feel it in your bones. In any time.
The real deal is Jeff Smith, the constable who, with bullets in his body, including in his head, held on to battle for some minutes before help came during that recent gunfight with Sean Ward, the ill-fated gunman at Belleville’s Sons of Jacob Synagogue.
Meeting inside with friends and family for bread and worship, you’d wonder why all hell was breaking loose outside. You’d done nothing wrong. Even so, after he shoots you all, your would-be-killer planned to burn the place down to make his point. He’s hated you that much. Imagine.
Imagine you’re Sharlene Weitzman, who covered her son, Finn Luke, as a human shield while those guns blazed. “I wasn’t going to let my child be killed at 19 years of age for being a Jew,” she later said. “You can kill me. I’m 59. But you’re not killing him.”
While Ward died from his wounds, he still left his mark, holes from stray bullets that have made certain holes in our nation more visible.
About 400,000 Jewish Canadians live within these societal holes. Statistics Canada reports Jews are about one per cent of our population, but targeted in about 70 per cent – almost 800 incidents last year – of religiously-motivated hate crimes.
This is the gap Const. Smith stepped into.
Of course, any officer knows it may come to this someday, even as the rest of us, civilians, often take it for granted, this protection, this willingness to lay down your life for your community.
It’s a good time, then, to step into some gaps ourselves. If we care about life more than death, and most people do, it’s a good time to show our own courage.
So when you see antisemitism, call it out. Set a different tone. Jews worldwide, remember, don’t necessarily support the policies and actions of the state of Israel. Anytime. It’s a crucial distinction.
Now would also be the moment for our leaders to strike their own discerning and helpful tone, considering Canadians like to tell the world of our credible values.
Here in New York, near the United Nations during its recent General Assembly meeting, I came across police containing pro-Palestinian protesters with their “F%*k Israel” banners and predictable, vulgar digressions.
You’d imagine they’d be further ahead if they found a discerning tone of their own.
In either case, nearby a young Jewish man looked towards my camera with a perplexed expression, as if he somehow felt blamed for the Middle East mess, historic injustices all-round, especially recent suffering of Gazans, which likely bothers him too.
It wouldn’t be hard to imagine other Jews – there are about 900,000 in New York City’s population of 8.5 million – having similar nuanced feelings.
Interestingly, Zohran Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor and a vocal critic of Israel’s policies, just announced a new initiative to “confront the scourge of antisemitism” and “build a city where Jewish New Yorkers are not only safe but celebrated.”
Which is to say that while evil likes to run amok in a world that’s terribly broken, it can be contained with the right spirit and tools and measures.
Back home in Canada, Const Smith’s uncommon courage is the clanging wake-up bell that, with any luck, will lead to some new containment within our own borders.
There’s no greater love than to lay down your life for someone else. Const. Smith was willing. Our prayers for full recovery now go with him and his family. We’re not all called to that sacrifice, that kind of courage under fire.
Some of us, however, do need to grow a spine.
Thomas Froese
Officers of the New York Police Department contain pro-Palestinian protesters who recently gathered near the General Assembly of the United Nations.