Shliach Condemns Anti-Semitic Hate in Toronto
from The Toronto Star:
Politicians and Jewish leaders came together Wednesday to condemn the anti-Semitic notes left at a Toronto area condo building.
Residents of 233 Beecroft Rd., near Yonge St. and Park Home Ave., say notes were left last weekend on doors with the phrase “No Jews” above a swastika written in red ink. Mezuzahs were also vandalized.
“There is no place for these acts of hatred, the acts of discrimination, these acts of anti-Semitism,” Mayor John Tory said at a news conference. “When (such acts) happen, we have to stand together with the men and women of the Jewish community and say this is not who we are, this is not acceptable in the place where we live together.”
Rabbi Moshe Steiner, co-director of Uptown Chabad synagogue in North York, said he visited residents after the attack and found them shaken.
Residents who were targeted were offered free mezuzah scrolls, Steiner said. He added that the residents wanted to lay low after the attacks.
“The answer to this hateful type of attacks is absolutely not to say let’s recede into the shadows, let’s keep a lower profile . . . we cannot do that,” he said. “We dare not, we dare not be marginalized and recede into the shadows. Let’s not be intimidated . . . whoever perpetuated this hateful crime is trying to intimidate us . . . trying to force us to cower in the shadows. We cannot do that.”
Glad to hear this topic (re: Ontario) discussed.
About two summers ago, my husband and I — Crown Heightsers — spent a Shabbos at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side (Ontario). While there, we experienced two instances of people expressing their anti-Jewish sentiments toward us.
One was on erev Shabbos, when we took a walk on a street of modest residential houses, not in the tourist district but only blocks away, and a car filled with young Caucasian men shouted “kike” at us and then pulled away.
The other was on Shabbos night after the seudah, when we walked along the beautiful walkway behind the hotels, enjoying the lit-up falls. A man who appeared to be Arab (with two women in clearly Arab head coverings, and dress) made a big show of repeatedly spitting on the ground at the sight of us.
All of this in supposedly “enlightened” Canada, the land of the “mosaic” as opposed to the “melting pot”!
We were shocked and disappointed, but being the New Yorkers we are, we did not let on and pretended not to notice, so as to not give the perpetrators the satisfaction of having affected us.
So I am glad to hear of officials speaking out against anti-Jewish acts. And it’s anti-JEWISH! Such behaviors were not against any of the other “semitic” peoples* — just against JEWS. It has to be called what it truly IS!
* “Semitic” means “a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs”! (per the online Webster’s Dictionary). LET’S stop diluting such behaviors by calling it something other than anti-JEWISH.
Awesome
Thank you Shliach R Moishe Steiner for using this as an opportunity for bringing beautiful message to Jewish and general community.