Toronto Police Service arrested a man who allegedly threatened Jewish students at the Yeshiva Gedolah of Toronto on Wednesday.
According to the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, a delivery man yelled that he wanted to kill Jews.
The Orthodox news blog, The Yeshiva World, reported that “an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] veteran who now serves as a cook in the yeshivah approached the man and ordered him to leave, only for the suspect to respond by punching him in the face. The cook quickly tackled the man and pinned him down until police arrived.”
Police discovered a weapon on the suspect, who was arrested and faces several charges. He has since been released.
In April the Toronto Police Service released its annual report on hate crimes and stated that “the Jewish community represents 3.8% of the population in the City of Toronto but was victimized in approximately 22% of the total hate crimes.”
“It is extremely troubling that a man with a weapon violently threatened people at a yeshivah and, even more disturbingly, yelled that he wanted to kill Jews. Clearly, this was an anti-Semitic crime, and the perpetrator must face consequences for his disturbing actions,” said Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, FSWC’s director of policy.
“Such an attack comes on the heels of the Toronto Police Service’s most recent annual hate crime report that once again showed the city’s Jewish community as the most targeted group,” she said. “Jewish students deserve to go to school without fearing threats and violence.”
According to B’nai Brith Canada’s annual audit of anti-Semitism, an estimated 2,800 incidents occurred in Canada in 2021, up 7% from 2020.
