06 September 2006
Jewish community leaders in Montreal, Canada, have called for "heightened vigilance" among their members following firebombing of a Jewish boys school in the early hours of Saturday morning. "Any attack against a religious institution, whether it is Muslim, Christian, Jewish or otherwise, should be considered a hate crime," Jeffrey Boro, Quebec president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, told a news conference. "This is the second time in just over two years that our schools have been targeted by a firebombing." A surveillance camera captured the image of a young man, wearing a bag over his head, tossing a Molotov cocktail into the main entrance of the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Boys School. The resulting fire was extinguished by a sprinkler system and the school reopened on Sunday. But a school official said the emotional damage is longer lasting. "The biggest problem is that we are involved with small children who are being affected through this and take it as if they were personally targeted," Binyomin Mayer, the school director, said. "A lot of parents have called us in the last few days and said their children can't fall asleep, they are nervous, they cry." In 2004, Montreal's United Talmud Torahs elementary school was hit by a firebomb on the eve of Passover, destroying the school's library. Montreal police arson and major-crimes squads are investigating Saturday's attack. They have so far declined to classify it as a hate crime because no message was left at the site and no one has claimed responsibility.
