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Some mother and father had been in tears, others had been indignant, and most appeared visibly shaken as they picked up their youngsters from Talmud Torah Elementary College in Snowdon on Thursday.
Underneath the watchful eyes of uniformed law enforcement officials and personal safety personnel, mother and father greeted their youngsters for the primary time since studying their college had been shot at in a single day, the bullet coming close to the constructing’s entrance door. Close by at Yeshiva Gedola-Merkaz Hatorah college on Deacon Rd., a bullet gap was discovered on its door Thursday, too.
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The incidents got here days after two West Island Jewish establishments had been focused by firebombs. On Monday, incendiary units had been left on the Beth Tikvah synagogue and a close-by Jewish neighborhood centre.
“It’s unbelievable,” mentioned Iris Alapin, whose son attends Grade 4. “Our youngsters don’t have anything to do with it. They’re going to highschool and studying tips on how to learn and write and rely. How is that this attainable, such hatred?
“I’ve by no means felt for one minute any sort of antisemitism in Montreal,” she added. “Now I’ve to fret. I’m scared for my security. I’m trying over my shoulder.”
She mentioned because the Oct. 7 assaults, she has needed to have many troublesome conversations together with her son.
“He’s having nightmares. He’s asking me if he’s going to be kidnapped,” she mentioned. “I’m frightened about what I’m going to say at the moment. He’s going ask me if somebody desires to kill him?”
She added that a few of her Jewish buddies are eradicating mezuzahs from their doorways, whereas others are altering their names on Amazon and Uber in order that they’ll’t be recognized as Jewish.
On Thursday afternoon, mother and father waited both of their vehicles or on the sidewalk for his or her youngsters to be escorted to them. The pickup routine has been completely different for a number of weeks because the outbreak of warfare within the Center East. Beforehand, all youngsters had been let loose of college on the identical time, and a few waited within the schoolyard. Now they’re referred to as one household at a time when mother and father current themselves, watched by personal safety brokers. The method takes 45 minutes longer than regular.
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“We had been already frightened, and now there’s an motion that occurred that goes far past what we might have imagined,” mentioned Rebecca Sokolowsky-Adda, who has two boys within the college. “We’re from France, and we fled antisemitism there. It’s a little bit of a shock to see we’re additionally focused right here. We don’t perceive why a battle tens of hundreds of kilometres away is imported right here.
“Now we have to be proud to be Jewish, however we’re scared. That’s for positive.”
That is the second time that Talmud Torah Elementary College has been focused by hate. In 2007, the St-Laurent campus of the college, which has since been closed, was firebombed in a single day on the primary night time of Passover.
“I’m involved; we’re all involved, however we’re not going to let it hit us on the top,” mentioned a father who didn’t need to expose his identify. “Once I heard, I used to be mad, aggravated. To know that somebody would have the audacity at a children’ college, not to mention a Jewish college, is outrageous. We’re in Canada in 2023. No matter what your variations are, this shouldn’t be going down wherever.
“I’m not indignant as a result of I take issues with a grain of salt. No person is lifeless, thank God. No person received harm. It’s simply materials. I simply know this isn’t the suitable solution to go about issues. In case you have one thing to show, show it correctly, and make your case. You don’t simply go on the market and begin capturing.”
One other mom, who additionally didn’t need to give her identify, mentioned she was scared.
“As a mum or dad, it’s very scary,” she mentioned. “Youngsters are all harmless. In the event that they need to choose a battle, allow them to protest. This shouldn’t be occurring in Montreal.”
Space metropolis councillor Sonny Moroz denounced the assault and referred to as it troubling.
“It’s horrifying and stunning that there continues to be an escalation of violence and hate in direction of the Jewish neighborhood in Montreal,” he mentioned. “It’s three days in a row that incidents have occurred. From the conversations I had with mother and father and residents of the realm, everybody is anxious about tomorrow they usually simply need it to cease.”
jmagder@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jasonmagder
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