Jewish non-profit "deeply disturbed" after community centres targeted in major Canadian cities
Editor’s note: This article mentions and discusses antisemitism.
New instances of antisemitism at Jewish community centres in Toronto and Montreal have left Canadians worried.
CBC reports that around 1 am on Monday, police got a call about a Molotov cocktail being thrown through the front door of a Jewish community centre in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area.
A Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SVPM) spokesperson told the broadcaster that its arson department is investigating the matter.
While the glass door panels and the floor were left broken and charred, nobody was injured.
In Toronto, prominent Jewish community centre Miles Nadal was also vandalized with graffiti that read “Israel funds genocide.”
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On Saturday, Maïmonide School in Ville Saint-Laurent reported a hateful poster and graffiti seen on school property to police.
According to the holocaust education organization Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC), the graffiti read “Israel terrorist.”
In a statement emailed to Daily Hive on Monday, the FSWC said it was “deeply disturbed” by these and many other recently reported instances of antisemitism.
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“The sharp rise in antisemitic incidents – including at synagogues, Jewish community centres, schools, university campuses and Jewish-owned businesses – since the October 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel reflects a deterioration of the safe space for Jews in Canada,” the FSWC said.
“Jewish Canadians are losing their sense of safety as they continue to experience hatred, threats of violence and incitement running rampant,” said FSWC president and CEO Michael Levitt.
“Our leaders – in government, law enforcement, universities, schools and all institutions – must call it out and take any and all necessary measures to ensure the safety of the Jewish community before it’s too late and someone gets seriously hurt or worse.”
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