As the official police Level 1 search for missing Toronto teen Esther (“Esti”) entered its second week, hundreds of community members ignored rainy weekend weather to help a Jewish safety patrol group spread updated posters across the city.
The growing grassroots response behind the search effort now includes Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers who are spending hours canvassing bus stops, subway stations, shopping malls and downtown office towers. Many say they are deeply disturbed by evidence that some of the original posters have been torn down, as it reminds them of Oct. 7, and how anti-Israel protesters defaced and ripped posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages.
The search effort has broadened beyond North York, where the family lives, including displaying Esther’s image at major public events, starting with a series of concerts by pop star Bruno Mars this week, as volunteers insist on keeping her face visible across the city.
On this episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner visits the Shomrim Toronto volunteer command post and retraces some of the key spots where search has been underway for more than a week.
Related stories and links
See the Toronto Police new website Find Esther, for the latest information and to submit tips, video or photos. Tipline: 647 355-4148Read why community members came out on a rainy Sunday to help put up new posters of the missing teenager, after many of the posters have either been torn down on purpose, or damaged by rain, in The CJN. Parents of missing teen pleaded for the public’s help to check back yards and security cameras, in The CJN on May 19.
Transcript:
[VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: “You’ll go to Bathurst and Sheppard, both sides of the intersection…”]
[Ellin Bessner]
It was a rainy Sunday afternoon in North York, but that didn’t stop dozens of volunteers from lining up at the Shomrim Toronto command centre at Bathurst and Wilson to help expand the search for Esther, the missing 14 year old autistic teenager – that most of them don’t even know.
On this day, they were giving out stacks of updated missing-person posters. There were two kinds.
The green posters came from Toronto Police. They included a new tip line and a QR code where people could upload photos or video.
It also has a newer photo of the girl – She’s wearing a green sweater and grey sweatpants, but with no shoes, no coat and no phone.
The photo looks like it came from a security camera inside a restaurant. On the weekend, police announced that Esther was spotted two kilometres south of her home, about 45 minutes after running away from her family late Friday night May 15.
The second poster, in red, came from the volunteer Shomrim Toronto patrol. It announced a new $25,000 reward.
It claims an even more recent sighting that same night, although police haven’t confirmed it. But Shomrim says Esther was seen riding a late night bus heading to downtown Toronto.
That’s why volunteers Mark and Laurie Naimer went off to tape some of these updated posters in the subway system.
Mark Naimer: Well, there’s a missing child. I mean, gotta try to help.
Laurie Naimer: We’re here to support any way we can. We feel for the family and all the loved ones that are missing this child and we want to help in any way possible to bring her back safely and well.
Mark Naimer: We’re going to talk to the attendants and the service people that work there
Laurie Naimer: And we’re going to ask as many people they’ve seen her and just raise awareness as best as possible to bring this girl home.
Everything can escalate. Unfortunately, this seems like it’s escalated, you know, not just to a simple running away because it’s been at the (one) week mark. So whatever we can do to help out, we’re here to do our part.
Ellin Bessner:
I’m Ellin Bessner and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Monday May 25, 2026. Welcome to North Star, the flagship podcast of The Canadian Jewish News, made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin charitable Foundation.
[SFX: command centre, people checking in]
10 days after Esther — known to family and friends as Esti — disappeared, the search has entered a new phase.
Toronto Police set up a new website called Find Esther. Supporters of the family have announced a $25,000 reward, and a separate Shomrim tip line. And volunteers across the city are replacing posters that were either destroyed in recent rainstorms, or torn down.
And while individual volunteers like the Naimers paired up Sunday to reposter the city, the word was getting out to shopping malls and office tower property managers.
Others made sure Esther’s poster was visible at the nearby Rogers Stadium, in Downsview, where pop star Bruno Mars kicked off a week of performances at the outdoor venue, in front of more than 50,000 ticket holders each night.
The grass roots command post is operating out of a commercial building on Wilson Avenue, just south of where Esti was spotted in that Popeyes restaurant at Bathurst, north of the 401. There were plenty of police officers and cruisers deployed up the street at Bathurst and Sheppard, monitoring the regular Sunday demonstrations involving anti Israel and pro-Israel groups.”
Here at the volunteer command post, however, there were no police officers visible Sunday afternoon when I was there. Only volunteers.
Still, organizers here insist they remain in constant communication with Toronto Police.
Simmy Zieleniec is a coordinator with Shomrim Toronto. He outlines the latest developments.
SIMMY: “Today we are going from Thornhill all the way downtown, repostering. There were posters that were ripped off of bus stops, ripped off of city poles and a lot of them got washed off in the rainstorm yesterday and the day before. So we’re basically just going to reposter the strip of Bathurst, some major intersections.”
Ellin Bessner
And you were mentioning some got ripped off, some got torn. What do we know about the actual people doing, do we know that people are ripping or people are jumping to conclusions?
Simmy Zieleniec
No, you can definitely clearly see that posters were intentionally ripped off of bus stops and poles around the city.
Ellin Bessner
Did they have a specific area where it was happening more or is?
Simmy Zieleniec
You can see the up and down Bathurst
Ellin Bessner
Yeah, I mean, I drove from Finch.
Simmy Zieleniec
You can see there, you have a Bristol board, you have a piece of Bristol board, you have where the poster was, and then the middle of the poster is ripped down.
Ellin Bessner
And you got permission from the TTC and everything to put them all up inside the, and they’re getting ripped anyway. Today the posters are green and red. There’s a new colour. Is that something? Why?
Simmy Zieleniec
They’re two different posters. There’s the, the green posters are the posters that were distributed by the, shared by the TPS.
Ellin Bessner
Toronto Police.
Simmy Zieleniec
They have the QR code and the TPS hotline, Toronto Police hotline on them. Yesterday, somebody came forward offering a reward. The family, they coordinated it with the family. So those posters are going out as well today.
Ellin Bessner
And do we want to say anything about the reward? You know, is it for tips leading to or any information, like who gets it?
Simmy Zieleniec
Information that will result in Esti coming back. They will be, whoever provides that information will be rewarded, will be compensated.
Ellin Bessner
Okay, so they also, so that’s new. They also have a new Toronto police tip that they saw her at later on in the day or later on in the night they put out last night something. What can you tell us about that?
Simmy Zieleniec
There’s footage of her at Bathurst and Hotspur, clear footage inside the Popeyes. That’s the last confirmed footage that we have.
there’s a lot of people seeing and that’s good, right?
Simmy Zieleniec
Yeah, no police are, they’re doing their job, they’re canvassing the neighborhoods also and they’re trying to get as much information as they can. Our volunteers are doing the same and we’re cooperating fully with Toronto Police Services.
Ellin Bessner
Some parents or some people here have been saying, why didn’t they do an Amber Alert? Have you been hearing that too?
Simmy Zieleniec
Yeah, a lot of people are asking about that. An Amber Alert is specifically for abduction. So we don’t believe that there’s an abduction at this point. So there’s no Amber Alert that’s going on.
Ellin Bessner
And what has stood out for you when some people are coming and you’re hearing?
Simmy Zieleniec
I mean, it’s just the response to the community has been amazing. From Saturday night, a week and a half ago, just over a week ago, 500 people came out and it’s been consistent. The community response has been really spectacular and really moving and it means a lot to the family, it means a lot to the community that people really care.
And have you ever done something like this before in your experience?
Simmy Zieleniec
This is the first time Toronto Shomrim has had a missing person that we’ve been this actively involved in. I’ve been personally involved but not as Shomrim inToronto.
Ellin Bessner
So tell me about that.
Simmy Zieleniec
A few years ago there was a case of a missing teen in Thornhill, Simi Abrams. There was a search and rescue that went out for him that unfortunately didn’t end well but the community also galvanized to help find him.
Ellin Bessner
So how are you keeping together and strong on this and you know it’s been a week now more.
Simmy Zieleniec
Yeah really I mean our main objective, our only objective is to find Esti and that’s the that’s what’s keeping everyone going.
Ellin Bessner: Are you getting other people besides Jewish community members coming to help?
Simmy Zieleniec
We had a group of 20 search and rescue volunteers from Rockland County, New York. that drove in as soon as they heard about it. They’ve had two shifts of volunteers come and go since last week. We had a group of search and rescue also from upstate New York called Matzil. They were here in Earl Bales until they exhausted all their search efforts there. And just people from across the community, Jewish and non-Jewish alike.
Ellin Bessner: Coming up, what advice does the father of an autistic man have for the family and searchers?
Ellin Bessner: Victor Fisico came to offer his help this day, even though the hospital worker had already been searching on his own in the neighbourhood where Esti was recently seen. You see, Esther’s disappearance hits close to home.
Because although Fisico isn’t part of the Jewish community, he is the parent of a son with autism, and Fisico has lived through his own similar nightmares when his son used to run away.
Fisisco told me he had actually consulted his son before coming over…to get advice for the family and the searchers.
And he was in tears talking about it.
Ellin Bessner:
And I’m sorry to make you cry.
Victor Fisico
And my son has ran away many times.
Ellin Bessner
And he told you when you were asking him, he knows about this?
Victor Fisico
Yeah.
Ellin Bessner
And he said, what would he do?
Victor Fisico
He wanted to come. But then he was scared to come, right? But I hope we find her and I hope we find her safe.
Ellin Bessner
And why would somebody that, you know, you know how it is at home with, gets angry and runs away, why would they do that? What would that, what would spark something like that?
Victor Fisico
That’s a good question because a lot of the times it’s none of his business, it’s other people’s problems and he kind of like, puts it all on himself. So he would run, right?
Ellin Bessner
Just overwhelmed.
Victor Fisico
Yeah, overwhelmed. And the thing about autism, kids with autism, their brains are like computers. So his brain is like a sponge. So everything he learns and sees and does, he soaks it all in. So I think it’s the same thing with her.
Ellin Bessner
And he said where he would go?
Victor Fisico
Well, we know where he would go. We know his favourite place, which is the Lakeshore. And many times he would go there, but he’s learned to control it, which is better for us
Ellin Bessner
So this is not your first time here. What did you do the last time you were searching?
Victor Fisico
We were just walking up and down Hotspur and around my area, like the 7-Eleven. And I checked the stairwells in my apartment building. Nothing.
Ellin Bessner
So you know what the parents are going through.
Victor Fisico
Yeah, I know what the parents are going through. But you were talking about the bus? I think the bus driver would have let her on. ‘Cause some bus drivers just, especially that time of night, just let you on.
Ellin Bessner
Would they have called the police? Do they have to call the police?
Victor Fisico
Yeah, all that? I don’t know. It depends. It depends on the bus driver. Now, did she get in the front door or back door? If she did take the bus? ‘Cause… Or is she still in the Hotspur area?
Ellin Bessner
But how does she get food? That’s eight days, seven days.
Victor Fisico
That’s another thing. If she doesn’t talk to anybody or speak to anybody about what’s going on, she could always, like my son said, she could always get food from somewhere.
She could always ask for food and they’ll give it to her. ‘Cause he said that’s happened to him when he’s ran away. He would go to a closest restaurant and they would give him food, he would look really upset and “Here you go”. “I’m hungry. Can you give me some food?” Basically, that’s what my son would do.
Ellin Bessner
And you’re not Jewish.
Victor Fisico
No.
Ellin Bessner
You saw that they’ve been ripping down the posters.
Victor Fisico
No, I didn’t notice that.
Ellin Bessner
Some people had been ripping them down, because they found out that she was Jewish, because of all the stuff that’s been going on. When you hear about that, what goes through your mind?
Victor Fisico
Well, I don’t like what’s going on right now in Israel. In Iran, I don’t like what’s going on, but there’s nothing I can say about it, right? It is what it is. My point of view about Israel. Yeah. But ripping down her posters, that’s not right. That’s not right. That’s not right. Yeah. We gotta find her. We gotta try our best to find her.
What is your point of view?
Ellin Bessner
About what happened to her?
Victor Fisico
Yeah, what do you think?
Ellin Bessner
I’m scared for her too. Absolutely scared.
Victor Fisico
We all are. We all are. That’s why my son doesn’t want to come.
Ellin Bessner
You think parents’ worst nightmare, which it is. It is.
Victor Fisico
Let’s hope my son is right, because like he said, kids with autism find a way, and she will find a way, and I think she might have found a way.
Bessner:
While Sander Hitzig didn’t know Esther, his son is the same age. 14. And attended the same public school that she did.
Hitzig and his son picked up a stack of 32 posters.
Hitzig: I’m going to post to them at Bathurst and Finch, Bathurst and Sheppard at all four major intersections.
Ellin Bessner
Is this your first time?
Sander Hitzig
Yes.
Ellin Bessner
And what motivated? What is your motivation?
Sander Hitzig
Just awful. Just want to help out. And if it’s a small part and leads to finding her, then yeah, why not?
Ellin Bessner
How old is he? (gestures to his son standing beside him.)
Sander Hitzig
He’s 14. Yeah.
Ellin Bessner
So when you heard about this as a parent.
Sander Hitzig
Yeah, of course. It’s heartbreaking.
Ellin Bessner
Do you live in the, like, do you know the family?
Sander Hitzig
I don’t know the family. I don’t know the family at all. I live in the neighborhood and my kid went to Dublin, which I believe is now where she went.
Ellin Bessner
I’m sure.
Sander Hitzig
Yeah, So, just to help out and come together as a community.
Ellin Bessner
And so you have to do 32 posters? You saw that some of them have already been ripped down.
Sander Hitzig
Terrible. It’s awful. I mean, this is a missing kid. It has nothing to do with being Jewish. I think any community, if you have a kid that’s missing and you can help out, you should help out and not tear it down. I don’t know what’s wrong with people.
But let’s get some posters up and hopefully find her.
ELLIN: On my way down to the command centre, I personally saw plenty of posters torn off the utility poles along Bathurst. And off bus shelters.
Even at the main entrance to Earl Bales Park where Esther first went missing, all but the soggy top and bottom of the green Bristol board was missing, attached only by the clear tape. Similar reports have come in with photos, from many places in the city
This volunteer, who didn’t want her name used, has been been shaken by seeing the posters crumpled on sidewalks
Ellin Bessner
You said you were walking around another day and the news about people ripping posters down has been personally really upsetting too. Do you want to tell me what you saw?
Community volunteer:
Yeah, it’s horrifying. You see this, you know, pictures of a missing girl crumpled up on the street. You know, it’s soaking wet and I think the posters are pretty easy to rip down, but you still see them crumpled in balls, you know, beside the telephone poles and Yeah, it’s horrific that people, just because she’s Jewish, at first it was interesting that the signs said that she was Jewish, right? Because in this kind of antisemitic climate, I was surprised about that, but now they’ve taken that down. But I guess people still see those red and white. For me, it kind of looks like the posters from when the hostages were in the, and maybe that’s all people are seeing, the red and white that look similar to those hostage posters. I don’t know, they’re ripping them down and it’s horrific that a 14-year-old girl, regardless of her background, should be, yeah.
I think it’s important to reach out to people and have people spread the word on their social media. So we’ve been walking around with posters through Earl Bales and now the search is obviously expanding from there. And getting people to take pictures of her face and the signs that they can post it on their social media. That’s what they had asked us to do a couple of days ago. That was really important, just to get her face out there so people know. Now there’s some changes. There’s now a reward for her. I mean, I think they’re just broadening the scope of the search.
Ellin Bessner
And impacting you personally, when you heard about this at first?
Community volunteer:
We have kids of our own. And there’s, I mean, this is the Jewish community. This is what we do. We’re here for each other. Every person counts, every person matters, and regardless of the story, we come together. We come together in grief and we come together in celebration, and that’s the beauty of the Jewish community.
And we don’t have a lot of time, but we are heading downtown and that’s why we’re just here to check in. And if we are going downtown, what we can do on route downtown, it’s just, you know, if everyone could just do a little bit, even if they can’t commit to the full 2 hours that the command would ask them to commit to, volunteer, just to know, you know, where they can keep their eyes peeled.
Ellin Bessner: You said you had kids?
Community volunteer:
Yeah.
Ellin Bessner
How old are they, if I could ask?
Community volunteer
Yeah, they’re later teenagers.
Ellin Bessner
Are they aware of this? Have you talked and how was it with them? What are you saying to them?
Community volunteer
Yeah, it’s horrific. And we’ve got friends who have kids who are at school with her or were at school with her. So it’s all very horrific. But like I said, I think the Jewish community is small, but we’re strong and we’re unified and we come together to help each other in grief and in celebration and that’s what’s so beautiful about this.
ELLIN: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounded like for this episode of North Star, made possible thanks to the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.
When I left mid-afternoon, volunteers were still arriving for fresh assignments.
But I was glad to see some of the earlier volunteers had already successfully put up the new posters on the torn remnants of the ones inside a bus shelter at Bathurst and Steeles.
The Shomrim command post reopens Monday from 11: 30 a.m. to 6: 30 p.m. at 345 Wilson Avenue West. Organizers say volunteers are still needed.
This show was produced by Zachary Judah Kauffman and Izzie Helenchilde. Michael Fraiman is executive director and Alicia Richler is the editorial director.
Check the links in our show notes for the tips line and latest news at thecjn.ca website.
Thanks for listening.
Credits
Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)Music: Bret Higgins
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