April 30, 2010
Crimes against Jews increase in Montreal
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A rash of crimes against the Jewish community in two Montreal neighborhoods has included swastikas painted on private homes and robberies.
The Outrement suburb and Côte des Neiges district of Montreal are home to a large number of Chasidim.
In Otremount, swastikas were painted on three properties last week, the Jewish Tribune reported. Last month, a synagogue was broken into and two swastikas were drawn in the sanctuary. Prayer shawls and prayer books were thrown on the floor.
In Côte des Neiges, at least three people easily identifed as Jews, including a 12-year-old boy and a pregnant woman, were robbed, the newspaper reported.
The community will present its complaints and concerns at special meetings in early May set up by area police, according to the Tribune.
“This police station has bent over backwards for the Jewish community,” Lionel Perez, an Orthodox Jew who was elected for the first time last November as a city councillor for Côte des Neiges/Darlington, told the Jewish Tribune. “People need to be reminded of that.”
There has been a major increase in reported incidents of vandalism and swastikas to the office of B’nai Brith Canada’s Quebec Region, director Heidi Oppen told the Jewish Tribune.
