A Montreal synagogue was damaged in an apparent firebombing investigators are calling an arson attack – and it’s the second time in just over a year the Jewish establishment was targeted.
Police and firefighters rushed to Congregation Beth Tikvah around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning over reports of a blaze burning inside.
The synagogue’s front window was smashed open, and when the flames were extinguished investigators found some kind of incendiary device inside.
“Witnesses told us that they saw one suspect that was leaving rapidly shortly after the fire started,” a spokesperson for Montreal police said.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, and no arrests have been made.
The synagogue’s rabbi said the fire didn’t keep them from holding their morning services.
“We were able to recite the morning prayers in an abbreviated way,” emeritus rabbi Mordecai Zeitz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“We did not close, even if we had to go outside to avoid the fires on the inside. But we had the fires of Jewish identity and Jewish pride very much front and center, in front of the charred doors of the synagogue,” he added.
Officials have not yet determined whether they believe the attack was a hate crime.
But not far off, another Jewish organization – a Federation CJA office – had a window smashed in a similar manner just hours later.
In November 2023 – just weeks after Hamas’ bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel — Beth Tikvah was targeted by an arsonist who damaged the building’s front door, while a door at the CJA office was also vandalized. No arrests have been made in those cases either.
“This is a terrifying reminder that Montreal is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people,” the synagogue said in a statement after Wednesday’s attack.
“This is the result of the failure of leaders at all levels to hold accountable those responsible for the hate and violence that is infesting Canadian society,” synagogue officials added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident “antisemitic.”
“This vile antisemitic attack against Montreal’s Jewish community is cowardly and criminal,” Trudeau wrote on X.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, urged the Canadian government “to act decisively, and show that such hatred will not be tolerated.”
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