Representatives from several minority communities gathered in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community, just before the start of Passover, at the historic Bagg Street Shul which was desecrated by Nazi graffiti.
They joined B’nai Brith Canada in demanding that Montreal do more to combat antisemitism and all forms of racism.
“This despicable act of antisemitism shows the urgent need for all levels of government and civil society to take concrete actions to confront hate in all its forms,” said Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
“In the coming weeks we will bring together victims of hate crime, various vulnerable communities, the police and other agencies to develop a Montreal action plan to combat hate.”
Others who spoke outside the century-old Plateau Mont Royal synagogue were Farida Mohamed of the National Council of Muslim Women; Frantz Voltaire, president of Semaine d’actions contre le racism and a prominent member of the Haitian community; Sharon Nelson, vice-president of the Jamaica Association of Montreal, and Bryant Chang, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Montreal.
The group responded to a call for joint action from Marvin Rotrand, national director of B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights and a former Montreal city councillor. He said other groups have also reached out to denounce the incident.
Synagogue board member Sam Sheraton, thanked the neighbours and community organizations from across Montreal who expressed their solidarity with the synagogue.
“This was a vile hate crime, and it is traumatic,” he said.
The synagogue does not have security cameras and he asked if anyone had information about the crime to come forward.
He added that, as the descendant of Holocaust survivors, the vandalism was especially painful to him.
Sheraton discovered numerous swastikas spray-painted on the exterior of the building on March 27. He noted that the perpetrator or perpetrators appeared to carry out the vandalism quite deliberately, and not in haste, as the symbols looked symmetrical.
The shul has always had good relations with its neighbours, he said.
The Montreal police hate crimes unit is investigating, said Rotrand, but with no camera recording or anyone coming forward yet with any useful information they have little to go on.
The graffiti was removed by Corey Fleischer, who for many years has erased any hate-motivated messages on buildings for free.
The building on Clark Street at the corner of Bagg Street, which dates back to 1899, has been home to the Beis Shloime Congregation since 1921, making it the oldest synagogue in continuous use in Quebec. Today the small Orthodox shul, the only one still in the Plateau which was once the heart of the Jewish community, has no formal membership but opens its doors to any Jew wishing to worship there in the traditional manner.
It also welcomes many visitors who come to see its beautifully preserved interior, including a brightly painted sanctuary reminiscent of shuls in 19th-century Eastern Europe.
Upon learning of the synagogue’s desecration, Rotrand wrote to Mayor Valérie Plante and the city council urging that more be done to address a growing number of antisemitic incidents in the city.
B’nai Brith is also calling on the Quebec government to follow the example of Ontario which recently made Holocaust education mandatory for Grade 6 students starting next fall.
“Ontario found that nearly 40 per cent of students graduate with little knowledge of the Holocaust and are susceptible to Holocaust denial and distortion. Things are no different in Quebec,” Rotrand said. Quebec has no mandatory Holocaust education.
Rotrand said he has written to Education Minister Bernard Drainville about this request. To date, he has received only an acknowledgement of his letter.
B’nai Brith’s 2021 audit of antisemitic incidents reported that the number in Quebec increased by 20 percent over the previous year. It was the province with the most recorded acts of hatred against Jews, even more than in Ontario which has a much larger population.
B’nai Brith’s 2022 audit will be released later this month, Rotrand said.
Niemi, a well-known anti-racism activist, said CRARR hopes to formulate within the next few weeks concrete ideas on how the city can be more effective in combating hate.
Rotrand added the city must allocate more resources to this fight, including starting with raising awareness of what antisemitism actually is. He said the Jewish community must work collaboratively with other minorities if this is to be effective.
Meanwhile, Rotrand has suggested to Bagg Street officials that they look into a federal program that subsidizes the security infrastructure of buildings in vulnerable communities.
