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January 28, 2011
Multiple strikes in Montreal
Four synagogues and one Jewish school were each hit by a rock.
DAVID LAZARUS CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
In the wake of sporadic but regular vandalism, the Jewish community of Montreal reached a tipping point two weekends ago after five institutions were hit on one night, said Rabbi Reuben Poupko, chair of Federation CJA’s security coordinating committee.
Four Montreal synagogues and one school were hit by vandals in the early hours of Jan. 16. The synagogues – Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem (TBDJ), Beth Rambam, Beth Zion and Dorshei Emet – all had single rocks thrown through their front windows. The same thing happened at Yavne Academy.
Four out of five institutions are in Côte Saint-Luc; Dorshei Emet is in Hampstead.
Quebec Jewish Congress, in a statement, strongly denounced the vandalism. Such acts threaten our society’s values of liberty and tolerance, QJC president Adam Atlas said.
B’nai B’rith Quebec also condemned the attacks and called on police to review past attacks, “which may have been dismissed as isolated examples of vandalism.”
Poupko said it’s believed that all five incidents took place between 2 and 3 a.m. on Sunday. A janitor who left Beth Rambam at around 2 a.m. returned an hour later and discovered the broken window.
A video camera at one of the institutions – not all have cameras or well-located ones, Poupko said – showed two men emerging from a car, throwing the rock and then leaving.
The incident was the most serious to hit the Jewish community since September 2009, when three Côte Saint-Luc synagogues had their windows shattered by rocks, apparently also by two men in a car.
Moshe Ben-Shach, director of operations at Federation CJA, who oversees security at community institutions, said that the incidents are being viewed with concern, and police are investigating them seriously. He said such incidents have been “sporadic” and that the priority is for the community to act “cohesively and in strength.”
Poupko said, however, that such incidents have been occurring on a more regular basis, perhaps once a month, but they have gone unreported for fear of triggering “copycats” or creating “an unreasonable degree of fear.”
“Police need to dedicate more resources to the investigation,” he said.
One source said that there had been an incident two weeks prior to the current ones in which “a major community institution” was hit by vandals, but the incident went unreported.
Poupko also said he has heard concerns that groups who have been calling for local boycotts of Israeli-made goods might be “riling up extremists” to the point of committing such acts.
“It is reasonable to ask the question,” Poupko said. “Those are the questions I’m hearing from people.”
TBDJ’s Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz wrote on his blog that, while the attack was “not the end of the world … a few hundred dollars damage … a broken window sends shock waves.
“The perpetrators broke this window because they hate Jews,” he wrote. “They hate me, my wife and my children, and they hate my community.”
Added Poupko: “There’s a point where enough is enough. These are cowards who throw rocks through windows under the cover of darkness … but [they] will not determine how the community organizes itself or uses its institutions.”
For more national Jewish news, visit cjnews.com.
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