News & Politics - Jewish elementary school firebombed in Montreal

elisheva · 04-07-2004, 07:51 PM

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montr...D-BDD05C732CAE

Quote:

Jewish school firebombed hours before Passover
Note left on door. Sources link attack to assassination of Hamas leader

JAMES MENNIE
The Gazette; The Ottawa Citizen contributed to this report

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

"Why did I come here?" Zev Mestel shrugs as his kids look at the scorch mark where his youngest daughter goes to school. "This is shameful. It's an anti-Semitic act. It should never happen again.

"Unfortunately, it will."

United Talmud Torah School in St. Laurent was firebombed yesterday, and sources close to the investigation say a note left behind called the attack a response to the Israeli assassination last month of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Islamic Hamas terrorist group.

Police are refusing to comment on that report.

Mestel showed up on de l'�glise St. when he heard about the firebombing on the news. He brought his girls with him and they picked their way through the TV cables and crime-scene tape to look at what happened, see it for themselves.

Shayna, 12, graduated last year from the school. Joni, 15, goes to the high school next door. Aviva turns 10 on April 15, the date they hope they'll have the school reopened and whatever destruction done painted away.

But listen to Mestel, hear the resignation in his voice, and it's clear the fire did more than damage whatever was on the other side of the suet-stained bricks, that there's more involved in making this right than paint and an insurance adjuster.

"It's one thing to have graffiti," he says. "It's another to have an accelerant thrown through a library window. It's like the '40s in Germany.

"Everybody feels that Canada's a safe place, and it is a safe place. But it's also a safe haven for terrorists, and in my mind this is a terrorist act.

"It's Passover tonight. It's supposed to be a happy holiday. Now we'll think about this."

- - -

"Our alarm company called our maintenance people at about 2:15, who in turn called me to say there was a fire in the school."

Sidney Benudiz, director-general of United Torah Talmud Schools, would love to leave the library to do his interviews but the TV people need background and whoever firebombed the school was happy to oblige.

The problem, however, is that the camera can't pick up all the fallout of the aftermath of the blaze - how an entire room has been melded by fire, smoke and water into a wire-tangled nightmare, how the smell of charred, then drowned paper and wood worms its way into your clothes, deep into your nostrils.

And then there's what can only be described as the ugliness of it, like an obscenity yelled from the window of a speeding car in the middle of the night.

By the time Benudiz got to the school, the fire was out but the cops were still there, investigating a case of arson and a note left taped to a door.

Benudiz hadn't seen the text, but said he gathered that the document had "political overtones, over the fact this was a Jewish school with ties to Israel."

Two and a half months ago, the 230 kids who come to this elementary school were greeted by a graffito of a swastika on the front door.

Benudiz says the other schools haven't been targeted with any specific anti-Semitic vandalism, except "the occasional stone thrown into a window, maybe twice a year. But we consider that a normal occurrence."

Whoever torched the library took the direct approach of smashing through a window, throwing some containers of flammables and then running like a thief once they'd taped their message to a doorway.

It's clear that the content of any manifesto is at this point irrelevant, that the medium is the message and the medium was the information centre of a school where students learn about their faith and heritage.

The problem is, this is a library for kids - little kids. So, yes, whoever torched the place managed to destroy Israel At War and a shelf full of books on the Holocaust, but they also managed to take out How Birds Fly, The Amazing Octopus and several sets of children's encyclopedias, as well as a teddy bear and a stuffed gorilla.

- - -

The problem with cases like this is that by publicizing them you run the risk of inspiring more incidents or copycats.

But there is no ignoring the presence in the school gym of the mayor of Montreal, the head of the city opposition, leaders of Jewish groups, a former federal cabinet minister and representatives of Premier Jean Charest and Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Martin has made Montreal-area MP Irwin Cotler his emissary.

But Cotler has a message of his own to deliver before speaking for his boss.

"I'm not here just as the MP for the adjoining district - I'm here as a graduate of this school," he tells the hedge of microphones before him.

"Yes, as students, we received anti-Semitism, but it was the anti-Semitism of ignorance, of stereotyping, of prejudice.

"What we have witnessed here today is the anti-Semitism of hate and of racism. The anti-Semitism of violence, anti-Semitism that consists of an assault on the inherent dignity of being human.

"We unequivocally condemn these acts of racist hate. ... We will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. And we will act. We will bring the full force of the law to bear on those who would commit these cowardly acts of racist hate crimes."

And that's when you can't help but smile when you think of whatever criminal mastermind decided to send a message to the Jewish community on the eve of Passover by torching an elementary-school library.

Because as he lets the applause subside before reading Martin's message, it's clear that no matter who it was and why they did it, they just made it personal with Cotler, a school kid from de l'�glise St. who grew up to be federal justice minister.

And that's the kind of heat any arsonist could do without.

jmennie@thegazette.canwest.com

� Copyright 2004 Montreal Gazette

Scary stuff. I'm curious - has this been in newspapers in places besides Montreal? Because I'm honestly surprised no one's mentioned this around here.

(Also? I *heart* Irwin Cotler.)

I know where this school is, I used to live near there, my little sister went there for nursery or kindergarten or something like that, I have friends who went to the adjacent high school.
There's been a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, but this is the scarist one in Montreal so far.

[img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

**sum1** · 04-07-2004, 08:06 PM

The anti-Semitism just keeps coming. In plenty of Europe, this sort of thing happens all the time.

Jess519 · 04-07-2004, 08:20 PM

Since the article doesn't say otherwise, I'm assuming no one was actually in the library at the time? No one got hurt?

That's one good thing at least.

Gods Mouthpiece · 04-07-2004, 10:04 PM

your right sum1 plenty of anti semitism in the EU

*Lauren · 04-07-2004, 11:08 PM

Can I ask what anti-Sematism in Europe has to do with an anti-Sematic attack in Canada?

elisheva · 04-08-2004, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by *Lauren:
<STRONG>Can I ask what anti-Sematism in Europe has to do with an anti-Sematic attack in Canada?</STRONG>

Personally? I'm frightened of the level of anti-semitism in Europe, and I kind of see this as pointing to a possible similar rise here.

It is relevant. Anti-semitism around the world affects everyone everywhere.

dayne · 04-08-2004, 10:31 AM

This sort of reminds me of the anti-semitic vandalism that was taking place in Toronto only a fews ago. On Bathurst Street, a bunch of houses, a couple of schools, a cemetery, and a community centre were vandalized with graffiti (i.e. Swastikas), windows were broken, and tombstones were overturned. It was all pretty scary stuff.

There was a general outpouring of support for the Jewish community from the entire Greater Toronto Area.

They caught some of the people responsible. I think one was an eighteen year old and the identity of the other two couldn't be revealed because they were only fourteen (because of the Young Offenders Act).

But I think there must have been others involved as well because Bathurst Street is very long and the crimes took place along many different areas along this street, where a large proportion of Toronto's Jewish population resides. If there are others involved, I hope they are caught as well.

[ 04-08-2004: Message edited dayne ]

mh67511 · 04-08-2004, 12:03 PM

The neighborhood I used to live in had a large Jewish population and my friend was telling me that there have swastikas being spray painted in the alleys on garages and other buildings. Probably just some young punks, but still it's sad that there are people that think like that in this day and age.

What a terrible thing to do though; firebombing an elementary school. Thank God no one was hurt. It's just sad that people still harbor feelings like that and that they would take out their anger and hatred in such a manner. Not to mention how scary it is; if they do it at night, what's to say they couldn't do it during the day?

[ 04-08-2004: Message edited mh67511 ]

AlexEvans · 04-08-2004, 02:24 PM

There have still been no arrests in the anti-semitic riots at Concordia University in Montreal, despite acts of violence being caught on videotape.

I think this sends a very bad message, and may have contributed to the outbreak of incidents in Canada this year.

[img]smilies/abduct.gif[/img] [img]smilies/read.gif[/img]

Cite Des Anges · 04-09-2004, 12:38 PM

I'm really tired of stupid people who can't make the difference between what's going on in Isreal and what's going on in their country, i dunno it has sthg to do with what hapenned in Canada, but i know that in France, most of anti-semit accidents are related to that. Lot of people are too narrow-minded to see that most of jewish people are innocent and that it's not up to them to make things change over there -_-'

Maggie aka Sarah · 04-09-2004, 04:20 PM

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montr...0-2879C618FAE8

Quell the fire of hate
The Gazette

Friday, April 09, 2004

The Western world has come by hard roads to the practice of religious liberty and mutual acceptance. As recently as 450 years ago, the Peace of Augsburg decreed that the local prince would decide, for each little German statelet, which religion everyone would follow, Lutheran or Roman Catholic. There was little room for dissent, and even less for nonofficial faiths.
Before that treaty, and after it, great sections of Europe were repeatedly ripped apart by merciless wars between factions of the Christian religion. Elsewhere around the world, too, men heard God tell them to kill those who worshipped differently.

But slowly, painfully, with many reverses, a new approach evolved. Increasingly, minority faiths were tolerated. Religion came to be seen as a private matter. By staying mum about it, increasingly important governments could claim the allegiance of all. By the time of the American Revolution, far-sighted statesmen saw the wisdom of flatly forbidding the idea of any official religion.

In Montreal this week, we were painfully reminded that this great march of human enlightenment is in no way unstoppable. The firebombing of a Jewish school's library, a glimpse into the pit of sectarian hatred and violence, made Montrealers recoil in anguish and alarm. Anti-Semitism, that ancient evil, defies the progress we have made, over the centuries, in learning to live together.

Through those centuries is woven the thread of the Jews, a majority nowhere, controlling no government, sometimes tolerated but often used as scapegoats, taxed and pillaged and expelled and slaughtered at the whim of rulers and underclasses alike.

Bit by bit, law and social practice in Western countries became more open. By 1900, in Canada as in the United States, Catholics and Protestants dominated society, and Jews were the only other substantial religious group.

Anti-Semitism was still common, but by this time was more often sly than violent.

The horror of Nazi Germany's insanely systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews made clear to the whole world just how shameful was the long, dark history of anti-Semitism. More and more voices rose against anti-Semitic acts and tracts and speech and attitudes. Slowly again, and with more setbacks, tolerance - with its overtones of condescending superiority - gave way to the more welcoming concept of pluralism, in religion and also in culture and language and more.

These liberating tools of coexistence have come steadily closer, since the Second World War, to being the norm in our society. They work, assuring each individual the optimum free choice in life.

And so the firebombing at United Talmud Torahs school this week, coming as it did on the eve of the Jewish holy days of Passover and the Christian Easter week, was doubly shocking, reminding us sharply of the religious differences that for so long were the reason, or the pretext, for so much harm.

Anti-Semitism, like any prejudice, is a repudiation of the hard-won wisdom of religious (and cultural) pluralism. But anti-Semitism is also unlike other prejudices: because Jews have been the targets of so much hate over the centuries, anti-Semitism has come to embody, for many people, the depths of human weakness and evil.

Headlines from around the world remind us daily that there are still people eager to kill in the name of religion or to express political grievances through religious hatred. The virus of violent bias may never leave the human bloodstream. To keep it under control, even, demands unceasing vigilance and constant reaffirmation of the equal dignity of every individual, every faith, every culture.

This week's crime has brought our city an opportunity to make that reaffirmation, and Montrealers of all kinds have done just that. The Gazette shared fully in that rejection of violence and hate in an editorial Wednesday, and we do so solemnly again today.

Now, daily, let us all support, and live, these values Montrealers share. Because if we can't go forward together, we are doomed to go backward.

� Copyright 2004 Montreal Gazette

elisheva · 04-09-2004, 04:35 PM

Maggie aka Sarah: I started reading a paragraph from the middle of that and I was wondering why it looked so familiar - I read that in the paper this morning [img]smilies/lol.gif[/img] I've never seen anyone besides me link to a Montreal paper...do you live here? (Or if you dont wanna answer cause of internet privacy, I can shut up.)

Maggie aka Sarah · 04-09-2004, 05:23 PM

elisheva: [img]smilies/wave.gif[/img] I also read the article this morning. And yep... I live in Montreal. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

And as a Montrealer this act of terrorism aimed against school children is very upsetting to me. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]

But I am very proud of all the politicians and religious leaders, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, who have stepped forward to denounce this crime.

Yep... I am Canadian... as as the anthem goes... am willing to "stand on guard for thee"... and part of standing on guard for my country, in my opinion, is to openly denounce those who use terror and violence in order to further any political goal, as well as those who commit hate crimes against any racial, or religious groups.

Abducted Bookworm: By my memory there was at least one arrest vis-�-vis the riot at Concordia. A perennial agitator, who seems to love to get attention by being arrested, was arrested several months afterwards. The same guy was also banned from the campus for 5 years. Oh and this guy wasn't a Concordia student.

Concordia held their own hearings, which I believe were student run... and by my memory several "cough cough... students" were banned from the campus along with some non students. To much complaint from the usual complainers. Sigh.

I agree with you though that the handling of the riot at Concordia was too lax. In my opinion, the guy who was arrested and those who got banned, got off way way way more lightly then they should have. From my point of view, that laxness did convey the implied message that violence in the name of political/racist whatevers is okay. Sigh.

Maggie

Headhunter · 04-09-2004, 09:46 PM

Terrible tragedy; was afraid that the violence in the Middle East would spread to North America...

JohannafromIHJ · 04-10-2004, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elisheva:
<STRONG>Personally? I'm frightened of the level of anti-semitism in Europe, and I kind of see this as pointing to a possible similar rise here.</STRONG>

I haven't really noticed anti-semitism around here. I think some people might be confused because there's a lot of pro-palestinian people around, but they're not automatically anti-semetic.


Fan Forum > General Discussion > News & Politics > Jewish elementary school firebombed in Montreal