Wave of “anti-Jewish hate” in Greater Toronto Area

Swastikas have been spray-painted on Toronto’s Beth Sholom Synagogue, at a school and on a bus shelter during what was described by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre as a “wave of antisemitic vandalism” in the Greater Toronto Area.

The synagogue incident is being treated as a suspected hate-motivated offence, according to police who have released a surveillance-camera image of a suspect.

Beth Sholom minister, Rabbi Aaron Flanzraich, said that the antisemitic graffiti wasn’t only an attack on the Jewish community of Toronto, but on “every person who calls the city their home and every Canadian who calls this country their home.” 

In a statement, Michael Levitt, President and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, said that it was “extremely disturbing to see such anti-Jewish hate being spread across the Greater Toronto Area.”

The Ontario New Democratic Party has also condemned the vandalism stating: “There is no place for antisemitism and white supremacy in our city, our province, or our country.”

Telling the Government to “act urgently to stamp out antisemitism and white supremacy wherever they occur,” the statement added: “Meaningful action is long overdue.”

The Toronto incidents follow the daubing of swastikas on the election posters of two Jewish Liberal candidates in Montreal earlier the same week.

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Image credit: StandWithUs