Jewish community centre firebombed in Montreal; Trudeau decries ‘vile and hateful’ act

A Jewish community centre in Montreal was firebombed in the early hours of Monday – an act decried by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “vile and hateful” amid flaring tensions in Canada over the Israel-Gaza war.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown through the building’s front door shortly after midnight, coming on the heels of several shootings and another firebombing targeting Jewish schools and institutions in Canada’s second-largest city.

The weapon smashed through the glass door and exploded in a hallway, burning part of a carpet.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo: The Canadian Press via AP

“No one was present and minimal damage occurred,” the head of Montreal’s Jewish Community Council, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, said in a statement.

“The rise in antisemitism in our city is frightening and the repeated violence and attacks on our community are abhorrent and condemned in the strongest terms,” he added.

Trudeau said on X, formerly Twitter, the “continued acts of antisemitic violence are deplorable and unacceptable – and must stop immediately.”

“We must all stand united against such vile, hateful acts,” he said.

Earlier this month, two Jewish schools were fired on, twice in one case, and a synagogue was struck with a Molotov cocktail. There were no injuries.

Police in Montreal and Toronto – both with large Jewish communities – warned of a recent spike in hate crimes, particularly antisemitic acts.

Several countries around the word, notably in Europe, have seen attacks on Jewish targets increase amid the intense Israeli strikes on Gaza in response to the bloody October 7 attack by militants of the Palestinian group Hamas.