Police are investigating a spate of incidents in which homes and cars of Jewish families in Snowdon and Mont Royal districts have been daubed with swastikas. “Private Jewish property, including cars, houses and even lobbies of apartment buildings have been sprayed with swastikas,” Arthur Hiess, executive director of B’nai B’rith for Eastern Canada, reported.
“This is not just ordinary graffiti but a form of anti-Jewish violence, ” he said. “Whoever is doing it knows who they are hitting.” Hiess said there had been 30 such incidents since last October.
Bernard Finestone, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Eastern Region, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after a meeting he had with the Montreal police that “We are working hard, hand in hand with the police to apprehend and put in jail those vandals who are spraying swastikas on Jewish homes, cars and other properties.” He said the vandals appear to be “unstable elements in our society who try to take advantage of the rising tension generated by the recent hunt for Nazi war criminals.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
