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November 24, 2000/Heshvan 26, 5761, Vol. 53, No.9
Canada suffers anti-Semitic epidemic
GIL GLADSTONE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
TORONTO - Canada's Jewish community has experienced a spate of anti-Semitic violence that some observers say is "the worst concentrated outbreak of anti-Semitism, particularly against religious institutions, since the Second World War."
That was the assessment of Manuel Prutschi, national director of community relations for the Canadian Jewish Congress.
The CJC has counted at least 50 incidents of arson, assault, graffiti and vandalism against Jewish targets since Israeli-Palestinian tensions increased in the Middle East in late September.
There have been four reported assaults, all in Montreal: Two students wearing yarmulkes were beaten up in a subway station, another was bullied in a schoolyard and a man was beaten as he walked home from synagogue.
Bricks have shattered windows of two Toronto synagogues, and anti-Semitic or pro-Palestinian graffiti spray-painted on at least five Toronto synagogues. Jewish shops and institutions have likewise been targeted in London, Hamilton and Ottawa, all in the province of Ontario.
The five reported incidents of arson include the firebombing of synagogues and the headquarters of a Jewish burial society in Montreal, Ottawa and Edmonton. Yousef Sandouga, 20, was charged with arson after a Molotov cocktail thrown at a window of Beth Shalom synagogue in Edmonton caused about $1,000 in damage to an external wall.
In one incident, police responding to a bomb threat searched a Jewish community center in downtown Toronto on Yom Kippur without disrupting prayer services. The Israeli Embassy in Ottawa also received a bomb threat.
Jewish officials also say they have received numerous telephone death threats aimed at them or the entire Jewish community.
Congregations and Jewish institutions across Canada have increased their security precautions, and many have hired full-time security staff.
The National Post, a politically conservative national newspaper, asserted in a recent editorial that Canada's vote in favor of an October U.N. resolution critical of Israel has created a climate of anti-Semitism in the country.
Participants of anti-Israel demonstrations in Toronto have called for "Death to the Jews," he noted, and sported signs equating the Star of David with the swastika, and Israeli Prime Minister Barak with Adolf Hitler.
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