With star turns in films like “Barney’s Version” and “Lies My Father Told Me,” Jewish Montreal has been making headlines for its cinematic profile. But a string of anti-Semitic incidents over the weekend is shining a less sanguine spotlight on the city’s Jewish community.

The Montreal Gazette reported today that four synagogues and a Jewish school in the heavily Jewish neighborhoods of Cote St. Luc and Hampstead were targeted by vandals who smashed windows with rocks, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

Rabbi Reuben Poupko, who serves as chairman of the Jewish Community Security Coordinating Committee in Montreal, told the Gazette the crimes constitute “an organized and systematic attack on Jewish institutional life” and promised that the people who use the buildings on a regular basis would not be intimidated by the vandals. “The reason it’s so troubling is that was not an isolated affair,” he said.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Beth Rambam, Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem and Beth Zion synagogues in Côte St. Luc and Dorshei Emet synagogue in Hampstead were all targeted; Academie Yavné, a Jewish school in Côte St. Luc, was also hit.

“These are cowards who act under the cover of darkness, who fling rocks in the middle of the night, and they will not determine how the Jewish community behaves or gathers for prayer or for study,” Poupko told the CTV network. “We will continue to use our institutions despite these continued assaults on our buildings.”

Just two months ago, CTV reported, a synagogue in the Montreal suburb of Laval suffered extensive damage “after it was targeted by vandals who placed a garden hose into a pipe that leads into the building’s oil tank and left it to flood overnight. About 2,300 litres of oil spilled onto the back lawn, causing contamination and other damage to the Young Israel of Chomedey synagogue.”

In another “troubling incident last March,” reported CTV, a synagogue in the heavily Orthodox downtown Outremont neighborhood was defaced with swastikas.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount