B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn fought tirelessly against antisemitism

When Michael Mostyn saw some fourth graders beating up a fellow first grader in the schoolyard of Toronto’s Associated Hebrew Schools, he stepped in to fight the bullies. When he returned home, beaten and bruised, his mother encouraged him to arm himself and take up tae kwon do, and by Grade 7, he earned a black belt. While at a high-school soccer tournament, he experienced his first antisemitic incident – a knife was pulled on him, and he was called a derogatory slur. After high school, he completed three months of basic training in the Israel Defence Forces, according to his nephew, Brandon Rudick, where he impressed the head officers to the extent that he was offered to join the elite paratrooper unit. (He turned it down.)

Fighting bullies, protecting Israel and going head to head with antisemites – these were harbingers of things to come; they became his life’s work.

Mr. Mostyn, B’nai Brith Canada’s CEO since 2014, died on Feb. 4 in Toronto after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 50 years old.

B’nai Brith Canada, an independent affiliate of B’nai B’rith International, engages in Israel advocacy, food and clothing drives for those in need, and lobbying for government action against antisemitic incidents, among other initiatives.

It also releases an annual audit of antisemitism and antisemitic incidents across Canada. “We try to get consequences in law for hatemongers,” Mr. Mostyn said in an online interview in 2018 with Faytene Grasseschi, a New Brunswick-based broadcaster.

While Mr. Mostyn’s professional life was marked by his tireless efforts against antisemitism and protecting society’s vulnerable, it was his personal approach to these issues that caught people’s attention.

James Pasternak, who has been a Toronto city councillor for 15 years, often crossed paths with Mr. Mostyn through their work.

“Michael understood very early on the dangers and warning signs of the rising antisemitism and the growth of the anti-Israel mob,” Mr. Pasternak said at Mr. Mostyn’s funeral. He added that he sat on various community liaison groups with Mr. Mostyn, including a police consultative committee, “and each time Michael spoke everyone listened. His was a valued opinion.” He added that Mr. Mostyn “praised police when a job was well done, and pointed out when there was work to do.”

In 2020, Mr. Mostyn invited Mr. Pasternak to help distribute clothing at a giveaway for the underprivileged.

“He wasn’t interested in rattling cages, but interested in reaching out to people as humans, and that is the way you promote social cohesion.”

Because of B’nai Brith Canada’s advocacy in 2024, a monument honouring Ukrainians who fought for the Nazis during the Second World War was removed from a park in Oakville, Ont.

Mr. Mostyn formed alliances and found common ground with other minority communities, especially at the organization’s Canada-wide multicultural forum against hate, which included representatives from minority groups with roots in Jamaica, Bangladesh, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Azerbaijan and elsewhere.

One such alliance culminated in a formal agreement with the Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce. His organization called it a “collaborative effort to use our respective resources to share strategy and best practices in common cause against the forces of racism and antisemitism in Canada.”

Marty York, B’nai Brith Canada’s chief media officer, recalled his impressions of Mr. Mostyn before he became the organization’s CEO. “It was very clear the instant we met that he was a feisty, fearless advocate for our community,” Mr. York said.

An example of his hands-on leadership was when a Jewish seminary student called Mr. Mostyn to tell him that he and a few friends were on the sidewalk next to the school, and a “gang” – as Mr. York described – accosted them, used derogatory slurs and hit the complainant on the head.

Mr. Mostyn was so concerned that he immediately went to the yeshiva to spend the night at the school with staff and students, “assuring them that he would do everything in his power to right the wrongs,” Mr. York told The Globe. The next night, he arranged for police and friends of his in politics to drop by the school, to assure the students that they would keep the area under surveillance and protect them, Mr. York added. No incident since had recurred, he said.

During his tenure at B’nai Brith, Mr. Mostyn met scores of world leaders and dignitaries, such as Elizabeth II, former prime minister Jean Chrétien and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. For his advocacy work he earned accolades such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the King Charles III Coronation Medal this year.

Notwithstanding the successes, under Mr. Mostyn’s direction the organization’s house organ The Jewish Tribune – a weekly newspaper launched in 1995 – ceased print operations in January, 2015, as part of cost-cutting measures. It coincided with broader financial restructuring, including the sale in 2015 of B’nai Brith’s Toronto office building at 15 Hove St., which had served as the national headquarters for 17 years. The new offices continue to be in the Toronto area.

Born in Toronto on May 6, 1974, Michael Mostyn attended the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT) for three years during his secondary education, and completed his final year of high school at William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute. He studied philosophy as well as law at the University of Western Ontario, graduating in 1999. He was called to the bar in 2001.

Before becoming B’nai Brith’s CEO in 2014, Mr. Mostyn worked as a barrister and solicitor at Mostyn and Mostyn with his father and uncle Lou; was chief strategic officer at a high-tech startup 3DTAC Technologies Inc.; and served as B’nai Brith’s national director of public affairs from 2006 to 2010.

In February, 2024, the Toronto Sun reported that Mr. Mostyn had cancer. That month, a B’nai Brith newsletter explained that he visited the hospital after feeling ill, and medical staff discovered he had COVID-19. Further tests revealed his cancer. Since that time, B’nai Brith chief operating officer Judy Foldes had been acting CEO.

Daniel Koren, a one-time employee of B’nai Brith who now heads Allied Voices for Israel, said he met Mr. Mostyn in 2016. When the organization delivered food to the less fortunate for Passover, Mr. Mostyn would personally take food to senior citizens, Mr. Koren noted.

In 2018, Mr. Koren approached Mr. Mostyn with a clever way to promote their annual antisemitism audit – to film a video for social media that imitated the famous “Mean Tweets” comedy segment from Jimmy Kimmel Live, where celebrities read aloud insulting tweets directed at them, often reacting with humour or disbelief.

“When I explained it to him, he was all for it. All to promote how absurd antisemites are,” Mr. Koren said. They brought in community leaders, rabbis, influencers and politicians to read out their own Mean Tweets. Mr. Mostyn read one he received: “Every time a donation is made to B’nai Brith, a Jew gets his horns.” His rejoinder: “I guess that depends on the size of the donation,” added with a smirk.

Rabbi Chaim Mendelsohn, spiritual leader of Ottawa’s Chabad of Centrepointe congregation, met Mr. Mostyn during the latter’s four-year stint in the city as B’nai Brith’s national director of public affairs, and according to the rabbi, the two developed a very deep friendship. With their respective organizations, they often collaborated on initiatives, including Torah classes with Jewish parliamentarians and a now-famous celebration to mark the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

During this holiday, Jews build booths called a sukkah – with canvas or wooden walls, and branches as roofs, to symbolize the huts used by the Israelites in the desert exodus. Mr. Mostyn was determined that there should be a sukkah on Parliament Hill – and began building it with the rabbi, yet neglected to secure any documentation or permission. Eventually, RCMP officers approached the two, asked a series of questions and a quick-thinking Mr. Mostyn talked his way out of the situation.

Subsequently, when the two men would run into each other at an event where Mr. Mostyn would introduce the rabbi to a new person, that story would be told.

“He’d always say he loved that story,” Mr. Mendelsohn said.

Last summer, Mr. Mostyn’s brother, Matthew Mostyn, travelled with him to Banff, Alta., where they hiked and whitewater rafted.

“Even though his body was weak, there was a young boy who fell from the raft. Mike, without hesitation, jumped in and pulled him back in,” Matthew said at the funeral.

Activist and former Iranian political prisoner Salman Sima told The Globe Mr. Mostyn was “a passionate fighter and great ally.” Since 2018, Mr. Sima said, they had worked together to lobby the federal government to list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. The Government of Canada did so in June, 2024.

Mr. Mostyn ran unsuccessfully in several political campaigns: In the federal elections of 2004 and 2006, he ran as the Conservative candidate in York Centre and lost to Liberal star candidate Ken Dryden, the former NHL goaltender; and in the 2011 Ontario election, he ran for the Progressive Conservatives and came in a close second to York Centre Liberal incumbent Monte Kwinter.

Both as a candidate and a community advocate, Mr. Mostyn enjoyed several long conversations over the years with Stephen Harper, he told this reporter in 2014. When asked how well he knew the then-prime minister, Mr. Mostyn quipped, “I suppose well enough, that I could greet him by saying ‘Hello Steve-O’ and it wouldn’t be disrespectful.”

“We’re kinda Stephen Harper fans in this family,” he said in a 2022 live stage interview in Midland, Ont. Mr. Harper made a surprise appearance at the 66th annual B’nai Brith dinner in Calgary in 2017.

Mr. Mostyn was “a true champion of community, a relentless fighter against antisemitism, and a proud Canadian who dedicated his life to building a better, more inclusive society,” Mr. Harper told The Globe by e-mail. “Taken from us too soon, Michael’s legacy of integrity, courage, and unwavering commitment to justice will continue to inspire us all.”

Mr. Mostyn leaves his wife, Ella, and their children, Benjy and Isabella. He also leaves his parents, Sheila and Alan Mostyn; and two siblings, Sari and Matthew.

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