Montreal police are investigating after the menorah outside an NDG Jewish community centre was vandalized Sunday.

The 12-foot high menorah outside the Chabad NDG Jewish Community Centre on Hingston Ave. was knocked over and the base was broken.

“The Menorah is a symbol of light spreading forth to the NDG area and the entire world. It is a symbol of our Jewish pride and it feels like this act is challenging that,” said centre director Rabbi Yisroel Bernath in a statement.

Police have no suspects or leads. Investigators have opened a file but are not calling the incident a hate crime.

Statement from Rabbi Yisroel Bernath, Director of Chabad of NDG and Concordia University – Loyola Campus:

This Sunday morning I discovered that our 12 foot Menorah which stands in front of the Rohr Chabad House of NDG (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a neighborhood of Montreal) had been toppled over and the base broken. I contacted the police who do not have any suspects at this time.

This is very hurtful. The Menorah is a symbol of light spreading forth to the NDG area and the entire world. It is a symbol of our Jewish pride and it feels like this act is challenging that. At a time like this, we rededicate ourselves to spreading the divine light of the Menorah and I guarantee you this symbol will rise again in NDG bigger and stronger than ever.

While we don’t know the cause of the vandalism, I feel it’s important to mention that over the past week, at a time when Israel has been under terror attacks on an almost hourly basis, inflammatory anti-Israel posters have been put up around Montreal and and at Concordia University by BDS-Quebec (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). The posters depict the body of a Palestinian boy with the caption: “Israel is killing Palestinian children.” I don’t know if there is a connection between the posters and the vandalism, but this type of anti-Israel incitement has been known in the past to lead to Antisemitism both locally and around the world.

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