Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Montreal-area synagogue and Jewish center are hit with Molotov cocktails

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident

(JTA) — Police are investigating attempted arson attempts after vandals threw Molotov cocktails at a Montreal-area synagogue and a Jewish center across the street overnight on Monday.

Investigators found broken bottles and burn marks on the front door of Congregation Beth Tikvah in the suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeau and on the back door of the nearby Federation CJA building. About 10% of the suburb’s residents are Jewish.

Montreal police said that no one was injured, and the damage to the buildings was minor. No suspects have been arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.

“We are horrified that exactly one month to the day of the atrocities committed by Hamas, someone tried to burn down our house of worship,” said Henry Topas, the Quebec regional director of the B’nai Brith watchdog who is also the cantor at Congregation Beth Tikvah. “We urge the authorities to investigate and arrest those responsible for this violent act targeting our community.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the incident on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“The attempted arson at @FederationCJA West Island and Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal is deeply disturbing,” he wrote. “Antisemitism is completely unacceptable and must always be condemned – our government will continue to work with Jewish communities to combat this hatred.”

Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, Montreal police have tallied 48 hate crimes and hate incidents against Jews, CBC reported. In comparison, Montreal police reported 72 hate crimes and incidents against all minorities for all of 2022.

Antisemitic incidents have spiked around the world over the past month, with synagogues as frequent targets. Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Berlin synagogue two weeks ago.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.