Gunfire targets Canadian Jewish school for the second time in a week
The shootings come days days after a man was charged in a similar shooting of another Montreal Jewish school in November
Birdseye view of the Belz Yeshiva Ketana in Montreal.(Belz fundraising video/YouTube)
By Ron Kampeas May 30, 2024
Gunfire hit a Jewish school in Montreal, the second such attack on a Jewish school in Canada in recent days.
On Wednesday, police discovered that at least one bullet had hit the Belz Yeshiva Ketana at the Young Israel of Montreal synagogue in the city’s Cote-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighborhood. They believe the shooting at the Orthodox school occurred before Wednesday, The Montreal Gazette reported.
The shooting comes less than a week after two masked suspects emerged from a vehicle early on Saturday morning and fired multiple shots at Bais Chaya Mushka, a Chabad girls’ school in Toronto. It also comes days after a man was charged in a similar shooting at another Montreal Jewish school, Yeshiva Gedola, in November.
No one was injured in the shootings, but Canadian Jewish leaders and political officials said the pattern was alarming.
“We have had enough. Yet another Jewish school was shot at in the middle of the night – in Canada,” said a statement jointly released Thursday by Montreal’s Federation-CJA and Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. “Thankfully no one was inside the building, but this violent hatred must no longer be tolerated.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined municipal and provincial figures in condemning the attack.
“Disgusted that another Jewish school has been the target of a shooting,” he said on X. “Relieved that no one was hurt, but I’m thinking of the parents and community members in Montreal who must be incredibly shaken. This is antisemitism, plain and simple — and we will not let it win.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
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