SAA event in Quebec, Montreal area, Canada on Thu 30th May 2024

Political leaders are denouncing a shooting that targeted a Jewish school in Côte-des-Neiges as members of Montreal’s Jewish community call for police to act against what they describe as rising antisemitism in the city.

Montreal police said Wednesday evening that they have launched an investigation into the shooting at the Belz school at the Young Israel of Montreal synagogue.

David Stein, who lives across the street from the school, said one of his neighbours told him they had been awoken by a loud noise around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday but didn’t know what they had heard until later.

“It was only discovered on Wednesday afternoon, when one of the school administrators saw the hole in the window, because it’s not usually where the kids pass by,” Stein said in an interview Thursday.

Stein said he prays daily at the Young Israel synagogue, a modern Orthodox congregation that shares the building with members of the Belz Hasidic dynasty who use it as a school.

It’s not the first time a Jewish school close to him has been struck by gunfire. Stein said that in November, the school his now-adult children used to attend was also shot at.

“It sort of brings back memories of my parents, what they endured in Europe. My father was in Germany. His parents’ house was completely shot up during Kristallnacht,” he said. “It’s very hurtful.”

While police have said they plan to increase their presence near the school on Hillsdale Rd. near Van Horne Ave. — on Thursday morning a police car was parked outside — Stein said he doesn’t expect that to last for more than a few days.

He said he thinks Montreal police need to do more to protect the city’s Jewish community and that direction to act needs to come from Mayor Valérie Plante.

On Thursday morning, a bullet hole was visible in a small window in a door at the front of the building, a spiderweb of cracked glass around it. On two other doors, small holes could be seen in the wood. The stairs up to the doors appear largely unused, with weeds growing in cracks and pieces of concrete missing.

Boys could be seen using a door at the side of the building and another entrance farther down the street.

Several men who came out of the school declined to speak with a reporter.

Three boys who were standing outside the other entrance said they had seen a security camera video of the shooting — and that the attacker filmed himself with a cellphone while he fired at the building — but that they weren’t afraid. One said that if the attacker had wanted to hurt someone, he wouldn’t have shot at the building in the middle of the night. Another referenced his faith in Hashem for his lack of fear, using a title for God, who is not named by religious Jews.

Moments later, a man came out and called the boys inside.

Jewish groups also called for the mayor and police to act.

“We have had enough. Yet another Jewish school was shot at in the middle of the night — in Canada,” Yair Szlak, the president and CEO of Jewish group Federation CJA, and Eta Yudin, the Quebec vice-president for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“Thankfully no one was inside the building, but this violent hatred must no longer be tolerated. Decisive action must be taken by Mayor Plante and leadership at the municipal level to finally put an end to the atmosphere of permissiveness toward antisemitism that is now rampant in our city,” they said.

Plante said Thursday that antisemitism isn’t welcome in Montreal.

“Of course my thoughts today are with the families and the community that are feeling threatened by what happened yesterday in Côte-des-Neiges—N.D.G.,” she said. “I have talked with the (school) committee this morning … with the principal of the school just to show my support, of course, and to reiterate that (police) and the city will always be on their side. There’s no place for any kind of discrimination, and of course that includes antisemitism.”

The incident follows a shooting early Saturday when two men opened fire on a Jewish girls’ school in suburban Toronto. No one was injured in that incident.

Last week, Abdirazak Mahdi Ahmed, 20, was arrested after several shootings at Montreal Jewish schools in November.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among the politicians to denounce the shooting.

“Disgusted that another Jewish school has been the target of a shooting. 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,” he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also condemned the shooting.

“We are witnessing a terrifying escalation of antisemitism in this country,” he wrote on X. “The Trudeau government must step up and finally do something to protect Jewish people in Canada against this violence.”

In Quebec City, Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry denounced the shooting and the increase in antisemitism.

“This is unacceptable,” she told reporters. “It’s another antisemitic act and it should not happen. It has to stop.”